Gymnophoria
by FrankIeroRules
Summary: Roxas never thought enrolling at a new school would come with the odd friends, shenanigans and plots carried out. Includes Demyx singing on a roof, ultimate sex hair, Winnie the Pooh, and a snappy blonde who won't accept the past. Akuroku, Seiner, Zemyx.
1. Chapter 1

_Gymnophoria: the sensation that someone is mentally undressing you. _

**[Roxas's POV]**

I had been through this before. New school, new friends, new surroundings. It wasn't that it was a bad thing, it was just really boring. But who was I kidding? It was sort of a lie when I said that I had had new friends, since I had never really had any to start with. My only good friend was one I had made two schools back. His name was Tidus, but we mostly talked over the phone, only seeing each other on important occasions.

When I asked if I could just not change schools, Sora said no, and that he'd help me find some friends, since he had no trouble finding his own. You see, I was staying with him at the moment since my parents had died and they were the closest relatives willing to take me in.

On my first day, I decided that this school wasn't too bad. It was until our research lesson in the computer room where I found my first encounter. I was just doing my usual thing – sitting alone and doing work, when this annoying red head started talking to me. Apparently he thought he was funny, too. Well, he might have been, but to me he was just plain irritating.

He had spent the first ten minutes of the lesson whining about how his computer wasn't working, until I finally rolled my eyes and plugged the AC adapter into the power point. He had a surprised look on his face, and must have taken this as an indicator of our awesome friendship.

"So, computer guy. What's your name?" Computer guy? Thanks, redhead.

"Roxas" I replied, naively hoping he would leave me alone. But no…

"Roxas." He said, narrowing his eyes slightly as if in thought, and then he looked straight at me, and I could see something coming; another one of his annoying jokes. "I think I've heard of you before. You like the name Roxy?"

"No." I replied bluntly, almost surrendering to the thought that he would never let it go.

"Too bad!" He dragged at the 'a' sound in a sing song voice, and I regretted sitting here in the first place. I was mildly satisfied with the long pause that followed, until I was interrupted from my thoughts by another of his outbursts.

"Soooo, Roxy. Why'd you move schools?" That smirk was back again.

"My cousin's here." I tried not to look at him, but I honestly couldn't help it. He had really green eyes. I found myself entranced, but managed to pull my gaze away. Unfortunately, I couldn't cover up the slight blush tainting my cheeks.

"Oh, and who's your cousin? I might know him!"

"Sora…" I hoped he didn't.

"…Now that you mention it, you two do look pretty similar…" Thanks? I wasn't too sure what to say, so I was just silent. I could feel his emerald green eyes burning into me, but I didn't turn to face him. It was awkward, and I wasn't good at awkward. But I figured that if I was going to make friends, I would have to give everyone a chance.

"So um… You know him?" I was surprised at how easily the words slipped out of my mouth; I hadn't even really thought of it.

"'Course I know him! We're sort of friends." Really, now? I hoped this wasn't one of the people who Sora was planning on introducing me to.

"Sort of?"

"Yeah. Well. We talk sometimes. Not often, though." I thought it was impossible to be _sort of friends_ with someone like Sora. He was bubbly and talkative, unlike me.

"Oh." I left it at that.

I kind of missed not talking to him for the rest of the lesson, but I didn't know what else I could say. I didn't feel the green eyes burning into me anymore, and I couldn't see that smirk. The rest of the lesson went longer than it should have, but I was relieved to find that lunch was next. This school was quite a bit smaller than the one I had been to last, and I was grateful for that, having never been good with crowds. Nevertheless, I was surrounded by people in seconds, and I almost gave up searching for my cousin until he somehow found me first.

"Roxassssss!" He elicited a few strange looks but ignored them all, pushing his way through the people and eventually standing in front of me.

"Hey, Sora." I said awkwardly.

"Hi Roxas! How's your first day?"

"Pretty good I guess."

"Good! How'd you like to meet some of my friends?"

"Umm." Pros? I'd have friends. Cons? I wasn't good with friends. He'd find a way eventually, anyway.

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

"Sure, I guess." I had learnt the hard way not to argue with my cousin.

"Good!" He said and dragged me off to an outdoor table with his friends. They all looked pretty cool, but I was feeling self-conscious. I had never had to meet many people, let alone a table full of them at once. But they looked nice enough, I suppose.

"Hey guys! This is my cousin, Roxas." He exclaimed with a goofy grin, pulling me up next to him. I was soon introduced to Riku with the silver hair – _silver hair_, I thought, _that's an odd colour_ - Namine with the blonde hair, and Kairi – who looked slightly like Namine but with short red hair.

I sat down and listened to them talk about their day, occasionally adding input into the conversation. After what seemed like 5 minutes, two other people came and sat with us – introduced to me as Pence and Olette; they could have been a couple, but I wasn't too sure. It may have been one of those situations where they like each other but think the other doesn't like them. Whatever.

"Hey, is that Hayner?" Sora asked after a while, staring at the distance. I couldn't tell who he was talking about though, and I had no idea who this 'Hayner' guy was. "Where's he been?"

"Probably just got into another fight with Seifer." Pence replied. Seifer? I had heard that name somewhere before…

"I swear, the chemistry!" Olette said out of the blue. Was she using her girly-senses, talking about attraction? Or… no; I doubted it was actual chemistry.

"I still don't see it." Pence replied. I didn't blame him – I could be quite immune to this sort of thing, unless it was obvious and completely in my face. But before anyone could reply, there was an annoyed looking guy with dark blonde hair sitting down with us.

"Seifer again?" Riku asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Yeah. Jeez. Why can't he leave me alone for once? Ugh." Olette giggled, but didn't say anything. I think I knew what she meant. I still didn't know who Seifer was, but I'd ask later. "He's so annoying!"

"Hey, don't tell me you _don't_ pick fights with him as an excuse to feel him up." Riku said, eyes lit up in amusement.

"No!" Hayner said indignantly, scowling at everyone's expressions, then mumbling quietly, "maybe…"

"Told you so!" Sora stuck his tongue out at the blonde, who looked as if he was about to crack a guilty smile any moment.

"Roxy~!" I heard the voice call out, and it took me a moment to realise that it was referring to, well, me. Duh. All eyes switched between me and Axel, as he came closer to our table with a friend; I had seen him in my biology class, but hadn't actually talked to him before.

"Hi Axel…" I mumbled nervously, feeling awkward under everyone's stares.

"Oh, Roxas! You met someone? That's great!" Sora exclaimed, and I was grateful for the distraction.

"Sort of. We talked in class."

"Yep. And this is Demyx." He said, motioning to the guy next to him. He had blue eyes and a blonde mullet thing. I wasn't sure what it could be described as, but I was sure that he was the only person who could possibly pass something like that off.

"Hey there!" Mullet-boy said, and I smiled at him in return. He seemed nice and happy enough. "We had biology together."

"Oh, yeah. I saw you there."

"Anyway, ladies. We're off!" The two newcomers left and made their way across the courtyard, disappearing around a corner. And all eyes were on me pretty quickly.

"So, you know Axel, then?" Riku asked.

"Well, sort of, I guess." I knew they'd ask that.

"Ahh, that poor thing." Riku chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

"He used to have this crazy ex called Larxene."

"Oh. What happened?"

"No idea. But I heard she's stalking him or something." I know it was cruel, but I couldn't stop myself from laughing. I mean, usually when you hear about a stalker, you think of an old guy, don't you? Unless she was an old man in disguise. Or some kind of evil monster… But before I could contemplate it, he continued.

"I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong. She's evil and scary. She used to come to this school actually, but moved after they broke up. You might still see her around, though."

"Why?" I hoped I didn't.

"Told you - the stalker thing. I'm not exaggerating, man." His face was serious, as if declaring this would save my life. Would it? Was she murderous? Manlier than me? Would she tower over me if I ever met her?

Yeah, I didn't want to find out.

"Huh. Really." I said, nodding my head thoughtfully.

The day seemed to go pretty quickly, and I had to admit I was impressed. Not only had I scored a few friends, but I managed to get through the day without feeling terribly bored. Even my new family was proud. Of course, it wouldn't have been possible without Sora's help, but sure, I was stubborn and wasn't going to admit that straight away. But he was the kind of person who I knew would help me with anything, so I mentally noted to pay him back for it all some time.

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Hey! So, this is my first fanfiction with more than one chapter. And I really like that word. Just because of what it means haha. But thanks for reading, and I hope you like it! Reviews are very much appreciated! :D


	2. Chapter 2

**[Roxas's POV]**

My first week at this school flew by in no time. I wasn't alone when I walked down the halls – even if most of the time it was just Sora accompanying me. But apart from him, I mainly talked to Riku about Sora, to Kairi about Sora, and to Namine about her art. I learnt that Hayner liked fighting with Seifer, Pence liked photography, and Olette liked Pence and teasing Hayner about Seifer.

I also talked to Axel and Demyx a few times and although I wouldn't admit it, they were growing on me – especially the redhead. Sora always gave me a mischievous look whenever he saw me talking to him, and I'm pretty sure I knew what he was thinking. But I just acted subtle – or tried to, anyway.

On the Friday of that week, a particularly strange scene occurred when I was walking to the table that I usually sat at with my new friends. I was walking through a hallway, not really concentrating on my surroundings, when I heard I whisper of _"Demyx, shut up! He'll hear us!"_ I turned around, mentally debating whether to go back, look and say hi, or whether I was just going crazily paranoid.

I stood there for a few moments with my eyebrows furrowed, when suddenly, I heard a somewhat high pitched scream of "Oh my god, spider!" from a familiar voice, and from behind the door stumbled a surprised Axel and a mortified Demyx.

"Demyx! What the hell?" Axel asked the blonde, exasperated.

"It was huge and hairy! What was I _supposed_ to do?" The other exclaimed. And with that, the redhead stepped over to inspect something on the door, and slapped his hand against it. I didn't blame Demyx - I hated them myself.

"All gone!" He said, cheerfully, and the other mumbled something I didn't hear, before they awkwardly turned towards me, pretending to just have noticed I was there. "Oh, Roxas, what a surprise! I wasn't expecting you to be here."

"Yeah, just going to see Sora and stuff. How 'bout you?" I asked with a slight smile.

"We were just going to, uhh…" Axel broke off thoughtfully, and the other had to finish off for him with a wide smile.

"The library!"

"Oh, cool." There was an awkward silence. Something was suspicious about the situation, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I was suddenly reminded of Larxene, and before I could stop myself, I blurted out the question I had wanted to ask him for a while.

"Who's Larxene?" I mentally slapped myself for being so blunt, and his eyes widened slightly before he took a good look around us, suddenly paranoid. Upon not seeing her, his face softened, and I noticed the smirk on Demyx's face.

"My ex… why?" Axel asked with one raised eyebrow.

"Oh, someone mentioned she was a crazy stalker or something like that, and I was just curious, you know…" This elicited a chuckle from either of them, and Demyx happily excused himself, saying that he needed to go to the library urgently.

"He's off to stalk Zexion, I bet you anything." Axel explained when he saw my confused face. I didn't know who Zexion was, but that was besides the point. "I dated Larxene, and then I dumped her when she kept flirting with like, ten other dudes. In front of me. I didn't even like her that much, and it was pretty short. We didn't even really do much. But yeah. That's pretty much it."

"Then… what about the stalker part?" I asked, trying to piece it all together.

"Well… she may or may not like me still… she keeps trying to talk to get back together with me. It's annoying. She keeps turning up at my place, and I don't know how to get it into her head that we broke up. Every Tuesday, seriously." He looked like he was close to shuddering.

"Why doesn't she get over you or something?" I tried to prompt him to explain more.

"Oh, come on. Look at this body. How could someone possibly get over _this_?" He waved at his body with the Cheshire grin that made me know he was joking. His eyes were really nice. Like emeralds. I wonder if he had abs. Wait, what? I didn't even think I was gay. And now I was staring at him weirdly. Stalkerishly. Is this how Larxene thought of him? I didn't like to think of myself as much of a maniac.

"Anyway, I should probably go find Demyx, you know, make sure he doesn't do anything silly…" He said awkwardly after a moment, and I realised that he may have noticed me staring with an odd frown on my face. I hope not. I really was starting to feel like an idiot now.

**[Axel's POV] **

Demyx ended up coming to my house after school, since he had so much to tell me. It was about Zexion, not that I minded much. Oh well. He talked about him 70% of the time, yet still denied liking him. While blushing.

"He's so cool, Ax! I like his hair. It's a pretty colour. And he talked to me!" Demyx exclaimed. But I was surprised – Demyx usually avoided him at all costs, not talking to him at all.

"Oh? What'd you talk about?" I asked.

"Oh, not much. He showed me where a book was. 'Cause I went to ask him where it was, even though I didn't want it, but I figured that he'd talk to me. Aren't I a genius?" He smiled.

"Oh yeah." I laughed. "And how'd it go?"

"Awesome! You know what?"

"What?"

"He like, almost smiled at me! I could've sworn there was a ghost of a smile there. And he looked somewhat happy, too!" He raised his eyebrows now.

"Wow…" I said with a smirk.

"It's weird, because everyone thinks he's such a jerk! But that's just 'cause he doesn't talk much, you know? I bet he would be really sweet if I actually got to know him." He said, blue eyes wide open with honesty.

"Yeah, probably." I didn't really know if I agreed or not, since I had never talked to him myself. But I couldn't break his bubble.

"Anyway, how'd it go with Roxas?" I was surprised by the sudden change in conversation, so for a few moments I tried to think of something to say, which caused him to smile evilly. I didn't like the look of that.

"Pretty good, I guess…" I trailed off without meeting his eyes. I was feeling nervous talking about him for some reason.

"You guess? It was bad, wasn't it?" He said with one eyebrow raised suspiciously.

"No. Just kinda awkward, I guess. I don't know. He started frowning at me weirdly all of a sudden. I didn't know what to do!" I sighed.

"Really, now?"

"Yep. And then I said I had to go and find you."

He frowned thoughtfully for a moment, looking up at the ceiling, before he looked at me quickly. It was like those light bulb moments that people got in cartoons when they got a really good idea. And I never really trusted those ideas.

"Well, what do you think he likes?" he asked.

"Uhh… I know he likes computers. But that doesn't really help me."

"Oh. Yeah. See, with Zexion who likes books, I can read and then we can talk about them or something! Whereas, you're screwed. You know absolutely nothing about computers."

"I do know something about computers!" Bullshit I did. He was absolutely right. I was terrible with them.

He denied this, and the conversation was soon changed. I was slightly worried about how I could find a way to build my friendship with Roxas, but as the saying goes, opposites attract. I just hoped that it would be right on this occasion.

**[Roxas's POV]**

The Friday night of my first week at school, I was having dinner with just Sora and his brother, Cloud. I had never really been as close to Cloud as I had been to Sora, but I had to admit he was pretty cool. He was four years older than us, in college. Their parents were at some school thing, so Cloud had made us spaghetti bolognaise, and was now asking about my week.

"It's been really good, actually." I replied, thinking back to past first weeks.

"Oh? Made any friends?"

"Yeah. Sora introduced me to couple of people. They're really nice."

"I didn't introduce you to all of them, though." Sora interjected, with a mischievous look that I didn't trust.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, I saw you getting close to Axel today. Anything going on there?" He asked with raised eyebrows.

"What? No. We were just talking…" I was suddenly embarrassed. Cloud was smirking at me and Sora was giving me a look as if to say _'I know what you're REALLY feeling!'_, so I decided to try and change the subject. "Riku was talking about you."

Sora paused for a moment and then spoke. "Well, we _are_ best friends."

"Like, a lot…" I smiled slightly, as if trying to imply something.

He blushed very slightly, looked down at his plate for a moment, and then answered. "Well, I'm sure your exaggerating. Anyway, Cloud. When are we going to finally meet Leon?"

"Uhh. I don't know… We've only been dating for like, what, two weeks? Yeah." He said cautiously. I hadn't heard of any Leon.

"Exactly! And I have no idea who he is! Come on. Just invite him to dinner or something!" Sora whined.

"But Sora, he's probably busy, you know…"

"Yes? You'll invite him over? This week? Awesome!" Sora said with a bright smile, and left the table. Cloud chuckled under his breath, and the two of us soon followed suit.

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Hey there! So, here's chapter two. Hope you like it! I'd really love to know what you thought about it. If you like it, what I could improve on, etc. Thanks a lot for reading! :D


	3. Chapter 3

**[Axel's POV]**

On Monday afternoon I went to Demyx's house, and he said he had the best plan ever. He thought that we could tackle two problems at once – getting rid of Larxene and reigning in Roxas, as he put it. I didn't think this could be good. You can't blame me – Larxene was involved, and she was one crazy bitch.

"Well, when Larxene comes to your house as usual, you can pretend to be with Roxas!" He exclaimed.

Oh no...

"Please don't tell me that, by 'with Roxas', you mean what I think you mean..." I replied cautiously after a moment.

"Yep!" He said happily. "And don't tell me you don't want that!"

"Demyx... you know I don't want to freak him out."

"He won't be freaked out! You don't even have to do much. Just say you're going out. But make it convincing, you know." He tried to reason.

"Fine. Okay. But if it doesn't work, you know who's responsible!"

He smiled before answering, "Yep, you."

**[Roxas' POV]**

So, my week was going pretty well until Tuesday afternoon. I had been dragged to Axel's house to hang out with him and Demyx. They had been acting pretty suspiciously, I must admit, but I didn't say anything.

In all honesty, I accepted because I was kind of excited at going to his house. However, when I told everyone at lunch, this excitement faded slightly into embarrassment at their replies.

"Don't let him sex you up too much!" Sora had exclaimed happily while Olette, Namine and Kairi had giggled.

"Oh jesus..." I had rolled my eyes with a smirk.

"Don't give me that look! He'll flop it out before you know it, and bam! The babies will be made. Please don't get pregnant, Roxas..." He said with mock innocence.

"Flop wha—...I'm not even a woman!" I exclaimed, then remembered, "Don't worry, Demyx will be there too."

"Ohhh. Threesome. Classy!"

I realised my mistake and smiled with my head slightly bowed as the others chuckled. There was no getting out of this one. I was just hoping that the bell would go now... or soon... no? Fine. Be that way.

Anyway, I should have realised something weird was going to happen with the raised-eyebrow looks Axel was giving to Demyx. We were sitting on the floor, chatting and eating, until the doorbell rang.

"Axel, aren't you going to get the doorbell? It's rude to keep a visitor waiting..." Demyx said as the redhead stared at him with wide eyes. Wordlessly, Axel walked out his bedroom door, and I could hear him descending down the stairs.

"Come on." Demyx said and motioned for us to go. Before I could get out of the doorway, he turned on his heal to face me and said, "please, just go with it. 'Kay?"

"Uh, okay."

I could hear a feminine voice in the doorway. It sounded somewhat evil, because when I heard it I realised that, oh shit, it was Tuesday, and Larxene came every Tuesday to stalk Axel.

I was doomed. She was going to eat me. Or burn me. Or—

"How many times do I have to tell you? I don't want to date you again, just go away!" Axel exclaimed, then saw me and nervously said, "plus, I'm taken. You lost your chance."

"Fwhat? That whore! Who is she?"

"It's a dude. I think you turned me gay." He said bluntly, then called out to me. "Roxas, can you come here for a moment?"

I realised that he wanted me to pretend to his boyfriend. I panicked for a moment before gathering my wits and walking mechanically to the door. Upon seeing me, she raised an eyebrow.

"So this is your new bitch?" She narrowed her eyes. She had funny hair – it looked like she was trying to imitate a bug or something. I didn't like bugs, and I didn't like her. Coincidence?

"My _boyfriend_." He corrected.

"Prove it." She sneered.

"Do I need to? Look at that sex hair." Wait, what? It's not my fault my hair stuck up weirdly.

"You messed it up just beforehand." She accused.

"No we didn't." Axel was getting fidgety now.

"Kiss him." Oh crap. I hadn't actually kissed anyone before.

Axel turned to me, and I looked up at him, trying to look as brave as I could. Then, he leaned down and kissed me. And he was invading my personal space, and I panicked and didn't know what to do, but oh – he was warm and it wasn't actually bad. Far from it. I liked it. It was soft at first, but then it got harder, and I faintly noticed Larxene scream and run away. But he didn't stop kissing me, and I was starting to get lost in the moment, when Demyx burst into the room and we instantly split.

"How'd it go? Was it alright? I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, Roxas! Do you forgive me?" He exclaimed to me.

"Uh. What? Yeah. It's okay. Don't worry about it." I was feeling quite awkward – what are you supposed to do when you've just made out with someone who's pretending to be your boyfriend to drive someone else off? It didn't exactly happen to me on a daily basis...

"Yay! I'll pay you back some time, I swear!" Demyx said with wide, apologetic eyes. Axel was just staring at me. It was really weird.

It was as if we were stuck on an island in some cartoon, and he hallucinated that I was a hotdog or something. He looked at my clothes and then back up at me with the same look. It was odd. But thankfully, Demyx clicked his fingers in front of his face, and said, "Axel! Stop lusting over sex-hair boy!"

I do _not_ have sex hair.

"Huh? Uh. Sorry. What were you saying?" Axel looked up at Demyx.

"Exactly." Demyx replied while the other blushed slightly.

At that moment, my phone started vibrating in my pocket. I answered, grateful for the interruption.

"_Hey, Roxas! You said you'd be home by 5:30 so that we could prepare for dinner!" _It was Sora. I realised that we were meant to be having dinner with Leon, Cloud's boyfriend.

"Oh crap. Okay, I'll be there in... wait, it's not 5:30 yet."

"I know. Just warning you!"

"Okey doke." I chuckled and hung up the phone.

"I didn't hear the phone ring..." Demyx looked at me slightly suspiciously.

"It's on vibrate." I answered, bluntly.

"I think I can name of a few other things of yours that vibrate..." Axel said with a smirk.

"Of course you can, you're a pedo!" Demyx exclaimed.

"What?" I asked, clueless. I was still dumbstruck by what had just happened.

"He meant your vibrator."

Urgh. I hope this wouldn't become an ongoing inside joke.

Demyx ended up driving me home, and I got there in 10 minutes. When I knocked on the door, Sora opened it with a wide smile and dragged me in, demanding I wash my hands and help him prepare lasagne. I definitely didn't realise how good a cook he was until I saw him franticly moving around in the kitchen, preparing the meal. Somehow we ended up with food all over ourselves, but we managed to finish in time to change our clothes.

We were pretty impressed with Leon, and everything went pretty well. If the conversation seemed like it was going to die – which barely happened – Sora was sure to find another topic to talk about, as usual.

I had managed to figure out that they were both graduating from university, and had met when Cloud accidentally spilt coffee on Leon and then offered to take him to his house which was close to where they were, so that Leon could wear another t-shirt. And there was no way I was going to believe that that was accidental.

Leon left at about 11:30, after we had finished watching a movie. Cloud walked around the house smiling like a teenage girl with a crush, and Sora and I teased him. I finally went upstairs and checked my email, remembering that I hadn't seen Tidus in a while. He had written one to me from yesterday, which said:

_Hey Roxas!  
__How's the new school going? Everyone here says hi, hope everything's going awesome. Write back soon and tell me all about it! We should meet up some time soon. Say hi to everyone for me.  
_–_Tidus. _

I smiled at the email and composed my reply as quickly as possible.

_Hi, everything's going really well here. Sora introduced me to some really cool people. Sora and Cloud say hi back. We just had dinner with Cloud's new boyfriend, and I completely approve of him. How about tomorrow, if you're free then? There's so much to tell you. Hope you're doing well.  
_–_Roxas._

I got a reply 10 minutes later after checking random things on the internet.

_Hey!  
__I'm doing pretty well. And Cloud's got a boyfriend, hey? You'll have to tell me about him tomorrow. How about, meet at the Twilight Town shops after school tomorrow? I'll call you or something to see where you are. See you then!  
_–_Tidus. _

Twilight Town was the suburb between Hollow Bastion, where I now lived, and Traverse Town, where he lived.

_Sounds awesome, I'll meet you there.  
_–_Roxas._

I went to bed after replying and fell asleep pretty quickly, dreaming about how Larxene turned into a huge dragon and captured me as revenge for kissing Axel.

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Hey! So, here's the third chapter. I had more fun writing this one than the others. Your opinions would be highly appreciated, but thanks a lot for reading! :)


	4. Chapter 4

**[Roxas' POV]**

The next day I avoided Axel. I was feeling too awkward about the previous day to talk to him, so I

just pretended as if I forgot what happened and continued as if we didn't know each other. The problem was that I'm not a very good actor, so it was probably strange when he kept catching me staring.

I was also feeling sort of used. I had this nagging feeling that he was only befriending me to get rid of Larxene, though I didn't think that Axel would be the sort of person to do that.

Every time I thought of something, it would always link back to him. It sucked.

After an hour or two, the girls started to notice, and Olette cornered me with a strange look on her face, asking me what was up between me and Axel. I decided that if anyone knew what to do, it would probably be her, so I told her all about what had happened the day before.

"Oh. So you admit you like him, then?" She said with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"What? That's not what I said!" I said, a bit too fast to seem to be acting normal.

"I know, but you do, you can't deny it." She stated, triumphantly. Damn Olette and her girly senses...

Anyway, she managed to get the truth out of me, but the only advice she would give was that if I gave it time, it'd sort itself out. She wouldn't even tell me if she thought that he liked me or something, but she had that smile on her face – the sort of look that says 'I know something that you don't.'

She also told me that the Struggle competition would be coming up soon, so we could sign up and try out for the team, but that not many people actually got on. When I told her that I had never bothered doing it before because not all the schools in the area took part in the competition, she told me to talk to Hayner about it, since she thought that I could do well in it. So I did.

"Struggle, eh?" Hayner asked with a mischievous grin.

"Yeah, Olette said to ask you about it." I said sheepishly.

"Yeah, she told me that she thought you could do pretty well in it. I get in every year. I've won once, as well."

"Oh, really? You must be good, then." I already knew the rules, just not technique.

"Yep. You know what?"

"What?" I said, somewhat suspiciously. He looked as if he had a plan, and the plans that I had been involved in recently were not good. And damn, I was thinking about Axel again.

"The try outs for the team are next Wednesday. If you put your name down now, I bet I could train you really well in time for them." He said, then raised an eyebrow, "deal?"

"Sure." I said, letting a slow smile creep across my face as I shook his deal.

**[Demyx's POV]**

So, I was starting to go insane from all of Axel's whining. Two out of three sentences would be something along the lines of either, "oh, why did I agree to do something like that?" or "he hates me!"

I had been observing their sheepish glances all morning, so I knew it would be fine. And anyway, there were more important matters at hand.

Like that of Zexion. Zexy. Sexy Zexy. Sexion. Coincidence? I think not.

I had been spending a lot of my free time at the library, watching him through the shelves of the library. I felt like a bit of a stalker sometimes, but I was hoping he wouldn't have noticed.

This time, though, it would be different. I would talk to him, make him swoon, and then we'd live happily ever after like in the chick flicks! Yay!

But no. That's not how I achieved friendly terms with him.

I went to the library as usual at lunch, and walked up to him. It was only when he turned around and our eyes met, that my hands started sweating.

"Hi, Demyx..." He said, sort of shyly.

"Hi Zexion!" My reply came out as barely more than a whisper.

"What brings you here?" He asked, curiously after a moment of silence.

I hadn't planned this far into the conversation, though, so I panicked and blurted the first thing that came to my head.

"Do you like dogs?" I mentally slapped myself. I still can't believe I said that, but I did. It wasn't too bad, because a timid smile spread across his face as he gave his answer.

"Yes."

Success! But he wasn't swept off his feet yet. I would have to work up to that stage, but hopefully not by blurting out stupid things.

"So do I! I really want a dog." I kept rambling.

"Oh, cool. I have a terrier."

"Oh, that's really cool! I'd like to see your dog one day." I was speaking really quickly now, not really caring about what was coming out of my mouth. "Do you want to hang out with me after school? We could go to the Twilight Town shops or something, 'cause I was going to go to the library to try do some research for that biology project we got the other day."

"Oh, sure. I can help you out with that, I'm done already." He seemed to be getting more comfortable as the conversation continued, so that was a good sign.

"Thanks so much, Zexy!" I hugged him, then realised that, A: I was touching him; and B: I had just called him Zexy. I awkwardly released him from the embrace and apologised for making up a name for him. But you can't blame me for rhyming it with 'sexy'...

"That's okay. I'll see you after school." He said as the bell rung – typical – and we parted, me smiling like a rabid fan-girl, and him... well, he probably wasn't aware that he had just had his first real conversation with his future husband, of course.

And yeah, I was _so_ the man in the relationship.

**[Roxas' POV]**

I ended up encountering Axel when not having talked to Axel until, when we were dismissed from our last classes, he cornered me as I was looking through my locker.

"Why won't you talk to me?" He sort of just appeared from behind the door as I closed it, and it took me a moment to realise what was happening.

"Um... You haven't exactly made any attempts to talk to me, either..." I tried to reason.

"That's 'cause you wouldn't talk to me!"

"Well, sorry..." I didn't know what else to say. "I have to go."

He grabbed my arm, making me spin around to face him, and said, "Don't keep avoiding me, Roxas."

He said it so sincerely with his eyes wide, and I was starting to feel guilty.

"No, I actually have to go, Axel. I'm meeting a friend at the Twilight Town shops." I mumbled, trying to avoid eye contact.

"Oh. Sorry." He said with a slight, apologetic smile.

"Yeah..."

"Who?"

"Just a friend that I used to go to school with. Tidus. I haven't seen him for a while. Got a lot of stuff to tell each other, you know."

He sighed, realised that he was still clutching my arm, and released it with a mumbled 'sorry.'

"How about on the weekend or something?" I asked.

"Oh... I don't think I can. I'm helping out my friend with his job."

"What's he do?"

"He's a clown." He seemed to lighten up at this and continued, "At birthday parties and stuff, you know. But something came up and he won't be able to go on Saturday, so he asked me to fill in for him. "

"Oh." I imagined Axel as a clown and smiled. "Well, good luck. But I really have to go, don't wanna be late. Sorry."

I left without another word and caught a bus to Twilight Town.

**[Demyx's POV]**

Hanging out at Twilight Town with Zexion made pretty much the best day ever.

We talked a lot – well, mostly me rambling about random stuff and him smiling as he added a bit of input. I talked a lot when I was nervous, but I completely calmed down after about half an hour, and we managed to talk about normal stuff.

I was right – he was a really nice person. Sort of introverted, but still quite pleasant to talk to. And he hated spiders, which automatically gave him a few awesome points.

He had never tried sea-salt ice cream, only heard of it, and I demanded that he try it. While eating it and walking around,

"Do you mind if I call you 'Zexy'?"

"Uhh... I guess. Yeah. It's fine." He gave me a smile, and I beamed back at him.

"It rhymes with sexy." I said, matter-of-factly.

"It does." He blushed slightly at this and

"With good reason, too." Ohshit. I realised after saying this that it was way too blunt to be taken normally. He said nothing, merely bowing his head down, and we continued to walk until small talk began again.

On the way to the library we saw Roxas and some other dude walking around, also eating sea-salt ice cream. They looked like they could have been brothers but I doubted they actually were, since no one had mentioned anyone of the sort and I hadn't seen him around the area.

We did eventually go to the library, and I was amazed that he managed to help me with the whole project. He was a genius. It took about 2 hours, since we talked in between. I could visualise this being a regular thing.

But eventually he had to go – he said he needed to be home by 7:30 to do something – and I was left to walk home. On the way there, I got an idea and entered the closest bookshop. I had a plan.

* * *

Hey, here's chapter four. I was meant to get it up earlier, but I had to write a speech for English and I had a huuuuge mental block on what to write haha. I'd love to know what you thought, thanks a lot for reading! And also if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! :)


	5. Chapter 5

**[Roxas' POV]**

Meeting up with Tidus was more interesting than I thought it would be. We met at the Twilight Town shops as we had planned, and ended up buying a sea-salt ice cream each, casually strolling around.

He told me all about his new girlfriend, Yuna, and that his family missed me. Nothing much had happened with him, so I was mostly talking the whole way.

It was slightly awkward at first, because he asked me about how I was going without my parents and all that. They had died in a car crash, which was why I was made to live with Sora and Cloud. I told him about their mum, Aerith, and their dad, Cid, and how cool they were. I also explained that they weren't home a lot, working late night often, but that they were going to make an effort to be home more often. I knew that they were on a business trip at the moment, so Cloud was taking care of us.

We also discussed Leon, and how he had been coming over more often. Only brief visits when picking up or going somewhere with Cloud, but there was a lot of small talk. Especially on Sora's behalf.

But I couldn't avoid the subject of my personal relationships, because he asked me about it first.

"So, Roxas..." He trailed off with that suspicious look that I had seen quite a lot lately, "met anyone special lately?"

"Uh." I blushed. Way to be subtle.

"Yes?" He exclaimed, triumphantly. "A dude?"

"Yes..." I sighed.

"Does he like you too?"

"Well... I don't think so. I don't know! Probably not." At this he raised his eyebrows, prompting me to continue.

I told him about Larxene, and how Axel had kissed me, and how I sort of liked him, but not really, and that we hadn't talked all day.

"Well... why didn't you talk to him?" He had his eyebrows furrowed.

"Well I don't know! We kept looking at each other, but he never talked to me."

"Well, maybe he does like you."

"I don't think so. He probably only befriended me so that he could use someone to drive her off with."

"Oh. Well... was she pretty?"

"...Are bugs pretty?" He laughed at this. "No, seriously. She's styled her hair weirdly, so that it looks like she has antennae. Like she's trying to imitate an insect, you know."

"Some weird bug-fetish, maybe?" He said sarcastically and smirked. Ew. I didn't exactly like discussing whatever sexual tendencies she may have.

"Anyway. She looks evil. Like she might hurt people for fun. What's the word for that again?"

"Sadist?"

"Yeah." I could imagine her having some sort of sadistic relationship with a leather-clad guy. Not Axel though. Definitely not Axel... okay, now I _was_ getting weird mental images.

"Well, what was the kiss like?"

Ugh. I didn't have much to compare to, and he knew it. So I went for the only word I could really think of to describe it. "...Nice?"

"Wow. Must've been amazing." He rolled his eyes. Psh, sarcasm.

"Well, I don't know... It was like... slow, but then faster, and then I heard her shrieking and running off – probably breathing fire and being manly or something, I wouldn't know." I thought back to the random dream I had with her as a dragon. "Then he didn't stop, but he did when Demyx came bounding into the room begging for my forgiveness."

"...Ah." He was thoughtful. "I still say he likes you."

I smiled rather fan-girlishly and put my face in my palms.

"You're blushing, aren't you." He continued with a teasing tone. There was no question about it. "You are. And you're thinking about him again. Imagine you two... kissing in the rain like in those overly sappy movies, or watching the sunset... Or in bed."

And I giggled. Very manly of me, I know. But _now_ I was thinking of those things.

"And I wonder what he looks like naked..." Nonono. He kept going, giving me weird mental images that I really did not need. But they weren't all that bad— no.

I managed to concentrate better after about a minute, and realised we had walked the same blocks a few times. My phone rang unexpectedly, and we stopped walking.

"_Hey Roxyyyy!"_ It was Sora. I mouthed this to Tidus, who leaned in close to the phone and yelled "Hey Sora." After Sora greeted him back, I asked him why he was calling.

"_I'm at Riku's house! We're all coming to his place on Friday after school. You don't get a choice."_

"Okey doke. Bye. Use protection." I said and hung up. When Tidus raised his eyebrows, I had to explain that I was joking, but that I could've sworn there was something going on between the two.

We were walking around the Twilight Town Sandlot, until I saw someone familiar. I was going to walk past and get a closer look, when I heard them shout out to me. It was Hayner. I realised there was another person there, but I didn't actually know who it was.

"Hey." I smiled at Hayner.

"Wait, Roxas... this isn't Axel, is it?" Tidus leant over and whispered to me. However, Hayner answered before I could get a word in.

"Nope, him and Axel are busy having a lovers' quarrel. I'm Hayner, and this asshole here," he motioned towards the other guy, who I realised I had seen at school, "is Seifer."

"Oh, hey. My name's Tidus. Nice to meet you guys." He smiled and nodded at the other two.

"See, Seifer. This is my Struggle sidekick. He's gonna be a great with my expert training."

"Roxas, is it?" He narrowed his eyes and grinned, standing up straighter. I nodded.

"Hm. Has the Chickenwuss here told you how many times I've beaten him?"

"Huh?" I was confused.

"Only twice! And I've beaten you once as well. Plus, you've lost all the other times." Hayner cut in.

"Yeah, but you lost those times as well. It doesn't count." Seifer raised an eyebrow cockily.

It suddenly dawned on me that 'Chickenwuss' was some sort of nickname that Seifer called Hayner. It reminded me of those cheesy pet names that couples had, like Studmuffin or Pumpkin. However, I didn't quite think that Seifer called him Chickenwuss in an exactly loving way.

Well, unless you were to consult Olette, of course. But that was an entirely different matter.

"Anyway, if I don't beat you, Roxas will."

"I've never seen him play before."

"That's because he hasn't. But I will train him, and he'll be the best!" Hayner said, determined, then put on a smile and added, "except for me, of course."

Tidus took this moment to intervene. "Rox, you never told me you were competing in the Struggle tournament!"

"Uh." Was I supposed to? "Why?"

"I'm competing!" He exclaimed with a smile.

"Wait. What? You never told me!" I was surprised. Hayner and Seifer smiled at him, and Seifer declared that they verse each other.

I was surprised at his skill. I hadn't seen many matches, but they were both really good. While watching from the sidelines, Hayner asked me if there was anything going on between Tidus and me, which I denied.

"Axel will be happy 'bout that." He joked, and I blushed profusely. "Knew you liked him! Well, we heard you talking to Olette about it."

"...Who's 'we'?"

"Oh, just... me, Pence, Sora and Riku."

"Oh jeez..."

"Don't worry. 'Lette seems to think that you've got a good chance, and she's usually right about these things."

"Hope so." I said sceptically.

I was glad that at that moment the others finished. Seifer said he was impressed, and we soon parted. Tidus and I went to get takeaway dinner, and then went home.

I found another surprise when I was entering the home, though. Since Cloud didn't open the door for me, I found my spare key and opened it myself. I called out to Cloud in case he just hadn't heard me knocking, and walked into the eerily quiet main room. Then I could have sworn I heard breathing, so I turned around to face the couch, and on it I saw Cloud and Leon in underwear, one on top of the other.

Well then. At least it was interesting to find that Cloud was on top. To be honest, I would've thought it would be Leon, but... apparently not.

Before I could dwell on this for too long, I felt the awkwardness of the situation, realising that I was still staring at them in surprise. Cloud cleared his throat loudly before speaking.

"Oh, uh... Roxas... Wasn't expecting you home so soon..." He laughed nervously.

"It's 8." I gave a sheepish smile.

"Oh, well uh, in that case. Leon was just leaving..." He smiled at the brunette, who already had his clothes on. I would've pointed out to Cloud that he was still wearing just his underwear, but I didn't think that would help the situation at all.

"Yeah. Nice to see you again, Roxas." He nodded and smiled slightly, before giving Cloud a small peck and leaving.

"Right, well, uh... I'm going upstairs... Bye for now." I said uncomfortably and smiled, before retreating to my bedroom.

* * *

Hey! Here's chapter 5. I don't really like this one as much, but it'll get better. ...I hope so, anyway. But yeah. I'd love to know what you thought, and thanks a lot for reading! :)


	6. Chapter 6

**[Demyx's POV] **

On Thursday, the day after I had hung out with Zexion, I went to school feeling confident about my new genius plan.

After Zexion left, I had gone to the book shop to buy something for him, and ended up buying a big book of Winnie the Pooh. It was just so cute, and I'm pretty sure he would appreciate such an amazing book.

So, in the morning before school started, I went to see Zexion in the library to subtly give him the present. I had left it on the table he was sitting at when he had gotten up to do something, with a post-it note stuck to the front which said:

"_To sexy Zexy,_

_Guess who! Hope you like it! :D"_

He returned to his desk and paused upon seeing the book, then picked it up, read the note, and smiled. When he looked around to see who had put it there, I panicked and hid behind the closest big object that could possibly hide me from view. I chose a smallish short of pillar – thinking back on it, I don't know what could have made me think it would hide me, seeing as I was about 3 or 4 times as wide as it was.

I stayed there for a moment, then slowly stuck my head out from behind it. He was looking straight at me. Oh crap.

"Oh, Zex! I uhh... Hi!" I tried to pretend that I had not, in fact, just been acting extremely suspicious, and that I hadn't expected him to be there. But I'm not too good an actor, so it wasn't all that believable.

"Hey. Uhh," he smiled and looked around awkwardly, "thanks for the book. It... it was really nice."

"Oh! Uh. How'd you know it was me?" I could feel my cheeks starting to heat up, and I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.

"Come on," he laughed, "who else would it have been?"

Huh. Good point there.

"Well, I'm really glad you liked it!" I nervously said. "'Cause I know you like reading and everything. And it's such a deep book, I mean, it really is a lot sadder than most people would think!"

"How do you mean?" Zexion asked with a slight smile and a raised eyebrow, which just fuelled my rambling.

"Well, look. There's Winnie the Pooh, who's overweight due to eating so much honey, and Tigger's the only one of his kind! And what about poor little Piglet? He's so anxious all the time! Christopher Robin doesn't even have parents!" I was speaking really fast now, almost tripping over my words. "And then there's Eeyore... he's always so sad! His house gets destroyed, he's lost his tail, and he's never happy! I mean, he's always going on about ho no one notices or talks to him. Poor Eeyore!"

I couldn't really think of anything else to say about the matter, and Zexion was staring at me with his eyebrows raised in amazement.

"But uhh" I laughed uneasily, "whatever floats your boat."

"Well, I'm sure I'll love it." Zexion smiled. "Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome!" I smiled, and the bell went off, signalling the start of school. We said bye, and I walked of, failing to hide my huge smile.

I didn't see Axel until lunch, since none of my classes before it were with him. When finally approaching him, he talked to me before I could say hi.

"Saw you talking to Zexion." He grinned. "How'd that go?"

"It was so good! I gave him a book. Winnie the Pooh. And he liked it!" I replied, excitedly.

"Yeah, I heard a bit of your rant, but decided not to intervene. Seemed like a pretty good discussion!"

"It's so true, though!" I said indignantly with a smile, and he laughed at me. "But anyway, have you talked to Roxas yet?"

"Well, no. I mean," he sighed and furrowed his eyebrows, "I tried to talk to him yesterday, but he was meeting up with this dude and had to go."

"Oh, yeah. I saw them, you know."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Only briefly. They were sort of far away, and I'm pretty sure they didn't see me, so I didn't say hi." Then I remembered something. "Speaking of Roxas, I bought you a little something..."

I then took out the book I had bought him yesterday while getting Zexion's present.

"You got me... Computers for Dummies." He said suspiciously.

"Yep! You see, you mentioned how Roxas likes computers, right? So I thought, maybe if you had something in common, or you at least knew something that he liked, he'd think better of you!" I exclaimed. "I mean, not that he thinks bad of you, but you know what I mean."

"Well, I already know what the power button does... Doesn't that at least count for anything?"

"Are you _suuuure_ you know what it does?" He playfully glared at me. "Anyway, with this book, you can sweep him off your feet with your amazing intelligence!"

"And uhh... how exactly would I show this amazing knowledge that I've acquired?"

"Well, I don't know... You could uh, make a website or something saying something like, 'I love you Roxykins, marry me, have my babies,' etc?" I smiled at him and he laughed. "Just make sure you don't tell him that I bought it!"

"I won't, don't worry." He said, then his face suddenly lit up. "I just remembered! How'd everything go with Zexion?"

"It was so good! He's so nice, Ax, you really have to meet him!" I continued to gush until the end of lunch, when we went off to our next lesson.

**[Roxas' POV]**

So, my day was going quite well. During my last lesson, I think I established sort-of-speaking terms between Axel and me, and was on great terms as usual with Demyx. I mean, it was hard not to be on great speaking terms with the blonde, since he was just too damn _nice_ to avoid or be mad at.

I also definitely couldn't break his bubble. He had been so happy about meeting up with Zexion that I couldn't help but be excited for him.

Of course, that meant that in that chemistry class, when the teacher had set aside a fun lesson to do an easy experiment, I was grouped with the two.

I had thought that there was no chance at it being awkward, due to Demyx's constant gushing about Zexion. It was kind of odd that Demyx sent Axel off to get all the equipment and everything needed, and I sort of panicked momentarily, thinking that it would be another one of his odd plans or something. I told myself I was just being overly paranoid.

Wrong choice.

"So, Roxas. Who was that blonde guy you were with yesterday?" He stared at me while resting his chin in his hands.

"Just someone I went to school with..." I answered as if it didn't matter, then became suspicious. "Wait, how'd you know?"

"Apart from Axel complaining about some old school friend you were meeting," he smiled, "I saw you two talking and eating ice cream, then go to the Sandlot."

"What?"

"Oh man, do I sound like a stalker?" His eyes widened slightly.

"Uh... no?"

"That's awkward-talk for 'yes, but I'm going to be polite and say no'! How will Zexy like me if I'm a creepy stalker?"

"Dem—"

"I mean, it's not like I go around preying on little kids or something." He was talking really fast now. I figured he did that when he got nervous. "Did you know Zexion likes dogs?"

He changed the subject so quickly that just stared at him in confusion.

"Just... something I asked him randomly one time..."

"Oh." I was still slightly confused, but decided to ignore it. "Don't worry, you don't sound like a stalker..."

He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's good. But really, is there anything going on between you two?"

"No! He has a girlfriend, anyway."

"Ohhhh. Okey dokey." He smiled evilly. "Axel will be pleased about that."

I was about to comment about that being the exact thing that Hayner said, when we heard a voice besides us.

"What would I be pleased about?" It was Axel, having returned with everything.

"Nothing." Demyx and I said in unison.

He just looked at us suspiciously and said, "Right..."

The experiment was pretty fun. We had detergent mixed with water, and we put the tube connected to the gas in it and made lots of bubbles. Then we lit it on fire with a match, and it made this huge cloud-shaped ball of fire. We did this a lot, having to duck away to ensure that we didn't catch on fire.

However, one time Axel wasn't quite quick enough. Luckily, it was only minor, but his sleeve caught on fire, and I had to put it out quickly while him and Demyx panicked.

"Axel, you're a flaming homo..." Demyx smiled goofily, "literally!"

We laughed, and I suddenly noticed that Axel didn't deny any part of it. Did that mean that I had a chance? I blushed slightly,

"Don't worry, it compliments your hair." I said with a smile, which made them laugh more.

That day when I went home, I was glad to have finally said a whole sentence to Axel, although I just could not stop thinking about whether there was any chance of Axel liking me. In the end, I just resolved to look into it tomorrow.

_**

* * *

**_

Lol, where it says "I went to see Zexion in the library" at the start, I almost wrote "I went to see Zexion in the shower." And I had no idea how many websites there were that psychologically analysed mental illnesses in Winnie the Pooh! Also, that experiment thingy was something we did a few months ago.

Anyway, Demyx really is turning out to be a big goofball in this. Thanks a lot for reading! I'd really love to know what you thought of it! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**[Axel's POV] **

The next day, Friday, was when we would all be staying at Riku's house for the night. I was kind of nervous, since it would mean I would be close to Roxas the whole time, and I had no idea what he thought of me now. Demyx seemed to think that it would be fine. He could always be quite strange at times. Like with the book he bought me, Computers for Dummies. I didn't think it would help the situation at all.

But somehow, his plans always seemed to work, so I would just have to wait and see.

As pathetic as it sounded, I was elated that Roxas had said a whole sentence to me the previous day. And he was even happy! I mean, people don't joke with people who they hate, right? Well, hopefully.

But anyway. Demyx was still gushing about Zexion by our second lesson that day.

"He's so nice, Axey!" He used the nickname for me that he only used when he was feeling happier and goofier than usual.

"I still say you should just go for the blunt approach, you know." I smirked.

"No! I can't just ask him, straight out like that! He'd be like, creeped out or something!"

"I'm sure he won't be..."

"But he will! I have to do something subtle. You know?"

"Yeah, yeah," I laughed, "but I'm pretty sure he _does_ like, you, you know."

"Oh, man! You know, it would just be so convenient if I could just put one of those mood rings on him..." He furrowed his eyebrows, deep in thought. "In his sleep or something! I'd just have to find out where he lives or something first, but—"

"Dem..." I was really hoping he wasn't serious about this one.

"Yeah?"

"You _do_ know those things don't actually work... right?" I didn't want to break his bubble too bad.

"Uh. What?"

"Mood rings." He looked at me as if prompting me to go on. "They don't... work. They're not actually like, some mystical telepathic rock you wear on your finger..."

He looked at me with that burst-bubble look that I was trying to avoid. Oh shit...

"But..."

"It's okay! Um. Don't worry! There are other ways of figuring out if he likes you!"

"But... They say they work!"

"Yes, but... they're for kids, Dem." He was still looking at me with the indignant look. "Here, it's okay, have a hug..."

Because hugs make everything better. But that reminded me...

"How about... Marly told me yesterday that he was starting to plan his Struggle comp party." He seemed to perk up at this. Marluxia was a friend of ours, who always held a party the night of the Struggle competition.

"Oh! Awesome! By the way, you know Roxas is competing, right?"

"What? I didn't think he would have learnt how to Struggle."

"He doesn't. Hayner's trying to teach him before the deadline on Tuesday. I think he's gonna do great, though! We have to watch him, Ax." He pleaded.

"Of course!" I knew that Hayner was a great Struggler, but Seifer would also compete, and I didn't know how that would go. Roxas was practically skin and bone, after all, while Seifer was like, 70 percent muscle.

Okay, so that was an exaggeration, but you know what I mean.

"Well, I was thinking... When you've wowed him with your awesome computer skills, you can ask him to go to Marly's party with you! Like, as a date!"

"Demyx, that's in like, two weeks."

"It's on the Wednesday after next. That gives you... twelve days until the party. That's plenty of time! You _know_ I think he likes you." He had his eyebrows raised.

"Fine, okay. I'll give it my best shot." I smiled. "Who do you think will be Marly's date?"

Marluxia always had a date to parties, but he hadn't told me about anyone new. After a moment of thought, Demyx replied, "I don't know... a cucumber?"

"Nah, not pink enough. He likes going for the proper women's vibrators." We laughed, then Demyx looked behind me with a strange expression on his face – a mix between surprised and happy – and I turned around to find myself face to face with Roxas. I was too surprised to say anything, so he spoke first.

"Hey, Axel..." He mumbled shyly, and I managed to gather my wits.

"Hey, how's it going, Roxas?"

"Pretty good. I was wondering... uh." He looked thoughtful. "You're coming tonight, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you think that we could talk, like, at my house or yours or something, before going there?" He looked hopeful.

"Yeah, that's fine!" I smiled brightly.

"Thanks." He smiled, but unfortunately the bell went off at that moment. "Oh. I'm off. See you later."

When he was gone, Demyx exclaimed fan-girlishly like I expected, and I could feel my cheeks starting to burn slightly, which was weird since I never blushed.

"I _told_ you he didn't hate you! But you just wouldn't listen..." He smirked, and we got up and went to where we usually went for lunch.

**[Roxas' POV]**

The day was going quite successful so far, but I didn't know how long it would last, as it was lunchtime, and I was due to have my first ever Struggle lesson.

He took me to the gym hall and handed me a Struggle bat, but first he just told me about it. Seifer entered the room, and to my surprise, instead of having a go at him, Hayner just said, "oh good, you're finally here."

"Hey lamer." Thanks, Seifer. "Just thought I'd help the Chickenwuss here train you to become the next Struggle champion, as he puts it."

"Oh." This seemed kind of strange – Seifer didn't seem like much of a helpful person if it didn't benefit him in some way, so I figured a more honest explanation would be something along the lines of 'just thought I'd come along and spend more time with the Chickenwuss here, since we're always fighting and it might give me a chance to charm his pants off.'

Hayner explained tactics to me a lot, while Seifer just stood there watching him. I tried to ignore this, but decided to consult Olette on the matter afterwards. The first point that Hayner explained was that it wasn't all about strength.

"You see, the jerk standing next to me here," he motioned towards Seifer, who was smirking with his eyebrows raised, "uses muscle force—"

"I call it _manliness_."

"Pfft. Well, he uses his strength to try and overwhelm the opponent. Whereas, I'm smart about it, and I don't go straight in for the kill."

"Pansy."

"Chickenwuss."

I swear it was like an old bickering couple. I imagined that if this was Olette's imagination, they would throw another few insults, and then Seifer would shout something like, 'kiss me, fool!' and it would be a happy ending for everyone.

But that's not quite how it went.

"You're just jealous that I beat you the year before last." Hayner stuck his tongue out, and kept going. "You've got to be alert and watch the opponent, trying to think of what they're going to do. And speed! Speed's important, too."

After explaining a bit more to me, they gave me a demonstration of the game, showing what he had just explained, and I watched closely, memorising how they swung the bat and lunged.

I couldn't remember ever being this determined.

We arranged to meet at midday tomorrow, so that I could have a one-on-one lesson.

When school ended, I rushed home as quick as I could, only to be intercepted by Cloud while trying to leave.

"Hey, Roxas..." He said, and I was immediately suspicious.

"Hey Cloud, what's up?"

"Why don't you just... sit on the couch?"

"I need to go meet Axel, though."

"Come on, I baked muffins..."

"Oh." I tried to resist, but it got the better of me. "Fine."

We sat down, and he looked at me intently for a moment before speaking. "I'm worried that we haven't talked enough."

"Oh. Is that what this is about?" I felt relieved. I thought it would be embarrassing or something.

"No, no... Just, you know, working my way up to it." He smiled. Oh. So it _was_ going to be bad.

"Oh. Well, it's okay. We've got plenty of time to talk." I was slightly confused.

"Yeah, that's right, we do." He hesitated, then frowned a bit. "I also wanted to make a suggestion... Counselling."

"No." He seemed to notice my tone of voice and left it like that.

"Oh. Well if you're so certain about it, then... I guess not." He lightened up slightly. "Now, to the main point of this talk..."

Oh no. I didn't like having these talks. They were always awkward, and I still wasn't good with awkward, and—

"I see you've been spending a lot of time with this Axel boy... I just wanted to uh," He pursed his lips and thought for a moment. "I'm not sure how to put this, but I was going to give you the birds and bees talk. But you're both guys, you know? Well, I think so, anyway."

"Well, I know that _I'm _a guy, at least...?" I smiled and he laughed.

"Well, yes. I hope so. So, I figured that it would be more of a bees and bees talk."

"Oh no..."

"That's what I thought, as well. The point is, don't have unprotected sex." He was serious now. "He could have like, Chlamydia and herpes and hepatitis B all at once, and if you have unprotected sex, then it's most likely that you'll get them too or something. And you wouldn't want that, right?"

"Uuuugh." I had my head in my hands, trying to ignore the blush completely covering my cheeks. "We're not even dating!"

"Well people who have one night stands aren't dating, but they still get babies and STIs as souvenirs." He laughed. "And you wouldn't want to get pregnant, would you, Rox?"

"Oh no, that's what Sora said!"

He laughed, "Well, I know you like him."

"How is it so obvious?" I exclaimed.

"Roxas, even your ears are red from blushing. Plus, you always come home with that sex hair..."

"Not you, too! I mean, even you and Sora have crazier hair than me!" That was _so_ not fair. Really.

"Yeah, yeah, there's no getting out of this one." He joked, and let me off the hook. Just before I left to finally go to Axel's house, I heard him call out.

"Oh, and Roxas?"

"Yeah? I shouted back."

"I forgot to say, make sure you use lube, too. Trust me, it helps." I could hear the cringe in his voice. "A lot."

* * *

Just so you know, I don't actually hate Larxene or anything, she just sort of seems to fit the persona of a crazy, obsessed stalker. And I hate those talks your parents give you! They're embarrassing, hahah. And somehow awkward. Ugh.

Anyway, I'd love to know what you thought of this chapter. It's a longer one, too (is that better or worse?). But thanks a lot for reading! :D


	8. Chapter 8

**[Roxas' POV] **

It took me about twenty minutes to get to Axel's house. I walked as fast as I could, but it's not my fault that I'm short and therefore had shorter strides than other people – namely Axel. He opened the door pretty much the second after I knocked with a somewhat startled look.

"Hey, Rox!" His expression changed to an odd one. "Why such a red face? Do I make you swoon _that_ much?"

I laughed nervously and felt my cheeks get redder at this. "No... I just walked all the way here."

"Ah. That's all?"

"Well... not quite..." I explained Cloud's sex talk to him, and he laughed quite a bit, especially at my expression.

"Oh man, you poor thing. Don't worry, there are no responsible adults home to take advantage of your poor innocence!" He kept chuckling, and then murmured, "would've loved to see that, though..."

"Or maybe you could compensate by showing me your costume for tomorrow?" I said as I walked inside.

"Wow, you remember about that?"

"Yep. And you're not getting out of this one."

"Fine. I'll show you."

"Who's job is it that you're covering for, anyway?" I hadn't heard about many of his friends.

"Marluxia. He used to go to this school, but moved. He's still friends with a lot of the people at our school, though." He smiled.

"Oh."

"Yeah, he's pretty flamboyant. He's got pink hair, but it's actually natural. It's pretty weird. But he always helps people out, so I'm paying him back. Again."

"Well, come on. We've got to get a move on to Riku's you know..." I smirked at him.

"Okay, okay, keep your pants on." He said and hesitated. "On second thoughts, you don't _have_ to keep them on if you don't want to..."

I laughed, "you'd like that, wouldn't you, perve!"

I didn't know what to make of the way he blushed and laughed somewhat nervously, so I just attempted to shrug it off. Key word: _attempted_. It didn't work.

"Uh, clown costume! This way." He spun on his heal and we walked upstairs to his room.

He started changing clothes, and I panicked, in a strangely excited, yet nervous, way. I was in the same room as Axel. And he was almost naked. Or well, he could potentially be getting naked. My cheeks were flushed and I looked away as politely as I could, before I could get too... happy. I could see him looking at me, which made me feel self conscious, as if he was analysing my reaction to it.

When he was down to his underwear, I became curious and accidentally stared at him, then panicked and blurted out the first excuse I could think of to get out of the situation: "I need to pee!"

"Oh, uh. Bathroom's down the corridor, to the left."

"Thanks!" It almost came out as a squeal and I walked out of the bathroom as fast as I could, into the bathroom, and shut the door behind me. I studied my reflection in the mirror, skimming through the last fifteen minutes in my head. What came over me? I never really acted as a teenage girl with a crush, and... did this mean that I liked Axel? Probably. I washed my face to try and cool it down, took a few deep breaths to try and calm myself, and flushed the toilet to try and make my flimsy excuse more believable. I walked out the door and to his room.

By the time I entered, Axel had already put the clown costume on, and was sitting on his bed, watching me. I smiled at him, and he smiled with that mischievous look of his and asked, "like it?"

"Yeah." I laughed. It actually suited him. I had never really liked clowns that much, but he looked even crazier. I took a closer look at the tattoos on his face – shaped like a kite or a diamond – and noticed that they matched with the whole clown look. "Nice."

"Yeah, I'll tell Mar—"

"Wow, is that what I think it is?" I cut him off suddenly as I saw a book on his desk. "Computers for Dummies, hey?"

"Oh. Well. You see, I know you like computers, and... thought that I'd get to know something about them too? Maybe... we could like... I don't know. Have more to talk about or something? You know, same interests..." He bit his lip.

"Oh. Wow. That's... really nice of you, Ax." I was kind of dumbstruck. Why would he do something like that for me? I felt really hopeful all of a sudden, then realised that I was grinning like an idiot and was probably creeping him out.

"Yeah. Thanks." He smiled.

There was an awkward silence for a moment while I tried to figure out what to say. I couldn't use my usual excuse, since if I really had to pee that much, there would probably be something wrong with my bladder. But it was okay, because he beat me to the chase.

"Well, we should really get a move on to Riku's!"

I realised that we were probably late, and that Sora would get suspicious soon. We drove there in just under 10 minutes and rushed out of the car and up to the door.

"Finally!" Riku answered the doorbell. "Sora was starting to get suspicious that you two were doing more than just talking."

Another awkward moment. Yay...

"Oh, we _were_." Axel said with a sleazy grin and hesitated, then continued once Riku had a chance to process what he had just implied. "Nah, don't worry. I showed him my clown costume."

"Oh!" Riku laughed. "Wow. I'm relieved. I mean, I couldn't tell and all with that sex hair of his..."

"Ugh, not you too!" I complained. "It's not my fault it sticks up weirdly!"

"Yeah, yeah." They laughed, and Riku let us in.

"Ladies first." Axel said to me as I entered before him, and I only realised what he had said after the door was shut behind us. However, before I had the chance to make any sort of retort, Hayner came bounding into the room, shouting to the rest of us.

"Hey! It's my sidekick!" He shouted happily to everyone. "My little Struggle apprentice has arrived!"

"_Your_ Struggle apprentice?" Seifer walked into the room. "What about all the work that I've put into training him?"

It was strange seeing Seifer here. Even stranger seeing him actually getting along with Hayner. I could see Olette watching the two intently with a smile on the face, and I think I knew what she was thinking.

"Roxas is here?" Sora walked into the room. "Rox! You're not pregnant, are you? You did take a while. And just after Cloud's talk, too!"

"...He told you about that?" I asked him, and he smiled and nodded. "Oh god..."

Okay, so all this attention was a little overwhelming. I saw Axel and Demyx leaning on the wall, whispering to each other and staring intently at me. I gave them a smile, which they returned.

We talked for a while, before someone suggested playing Truth or Dare, which was fun. I couldn't stop noticing how close Sora and Riku was. I didn't know if it was just me being protective of family or not, but I decided there was most likely something going on there.

At one point, I was asked what my most intimate moment was by Axel, and I looked at him as if implying something, and he realised that it was the moment when we had kissed in front of Larxene to try and get rid of her. When everyone else got curious, we had to explain it to them, and they laughed while we just blushed and smirked, embarrassed.

Demyx also ended up on the roof in his underwear, Seifer had to do push ups over Hayner, and a few people had to kiss others, etc.

After a while of that game, Riku stood up and said, "Wait! I just thought of something!"

He returned with a game of Twister, which I've always been pretty bad at. Since we could only have four on at a time, I was hoping I wouldn't be in the first game, but Demyx dragged me and Seifer on, saying that we were the only two who hadn't hung out with them for "Friday night shenanigans", so we had to go on first. Demyx then convinced Axel to join us, so we played the first game.

Riku spun the dial at first, but then worked together with Sora to try and figure out the most awkward positions to make the game more interesting. At one point, Axel's leg was over mine and his crotch was against my hip, and I hoped no one would notice it.

But Demyx did, and he said, "Woah, Axel! Going a bit bold there!"

I could feel Axel moving as he laughed and said, "I can't help it!"

"It's Twister, not surprise butt-sex, you know!"

"Okay, now I'm scared..." Seifer muttered loud enough for us all to hear, and we laughed.

"_You're_ scared? Think about how Roxas feels!" Hayner called out. "Axel, you should know that that's no way to treat a lady, perve!"

Axel started laughing hard enough to be unable to support himself enough, which brought down not only him, but Demyx and me as well. Seifer was somehow strong enough to be able to hold himself up throughout this, and won.

"Hey, that's an unfair disadvantage. He's just flexible from all that ballet he used to do!" Hayner exclaimed with a mischievous look directed at Seifer, who was now blushing and trying to hide his smile.

Wait, what?

"Hey, I was like, seven! And my parents made me do it. Only for a few years!" We all laughed and teased him about it, then continued with more games.

During the next few games, Riku and Sora were snuggling up to each other, Pence had probably taken enough pictures to fill a whole album, and I was pretty sure that Hayner and Seifer liked each other.

We went wandering around at 4 in the morning, feeling really energetic and having felt a bit hungry. We were back at Riku's house by 6:30 and finally crashed.

I left the next day with Hayner, Seifer, Olette and Pence. We went to Hayner's house to get Struggling gear, and then proceeded to the Sandlot for me to get more practice. Olette and Pence were mostly watching us; I could see Pence taking a few pictures and Olette eyeing the interactions between Seifer and Hayner.

The two rivals demonstrated different swinging techniques to me, and I had a go against both of them. Despite the fact that they were going easy on me, I think I still managed to do pretty well.

Seifer said that I was doing a nice job so far, and he gave me a pat on the back strong enough to make me question how someone as scrawny looking as Hayner could possibly have won fights against him. Hayner said that I would be great in no time, and that with more practice on the days until Wednesday, when I would have to try out for the team, I would do great.

"Don't worry, it's pretty easy to get on the team. It's mostly for just working out how good you are, and all that, you know." Seifer explained to me, but it didn't really reassure me.

After I had practiced quite a bit, Seifer and Hayner practiced against each other, and I watched with Olette, since Pence had left to do something urgent.

The distinct lack of Axel had become more prominent, but I blamed my weird obsession on hormones and tried to ignore it. I tried to distract myself by telling Olette about how they had acted a lot like a couple when first teaching me Struggle, and her response really surprised me.

"I know. I saw." She smiled evilly.

"What? How?"

"I might've been hiding behind the seats and listening?"

"Wait... you were like, stalking them or something?"

"It's not really _stalking_... I just got curious." She laughed.

"Oh, man. That's... ninja!" She laughed and looked up as the two Strugglers approached us.

"I'm off. I'll see you later." Seifer left, and Olette knowingly watched Hayner.

"What?" He asked, suspiciously. "What're you giving me that look for?"

"You know what I'm smiling about."

"It's not what you think!" Hayner suddenly blushed which just seemed to fuel Olette's 'I know the truth, so spill it' look. "We were just... you know? Like—"

"Hayner, okay, look. Here's the plan. If you don't confess to him that you like him by Marly's party, then I'm telling him for you. And I'll make sure you're with us as I do so, as your punishment. 'Kay?"

"What? That's so unfair!" Hayner blushed even more, and the two bickered about the matter for a few minutes, until he finally gave in.

We gathered all our stuff and left, buying sea-salt ice cream and walking a bit together, before splitting up and going home.

* * *

That's right. Seifer used to do ballet. Bet you weren't expecting that! Hahah, anyway. What did you think of it? Did it drag on a bit too much or anything?

I'd love to see your feedback! Thanks a lot for reading! :D


	9. Chapter 9

**[Roxas' POV] **

I had officially started my third week at that school, and was amazed how much had happened in that time. Cloud and Leon were still going strong, but they toned things down a little while in public. Sora's parents, Aerith and Cid, had also returned from a business trip and were doing a lot to help out around the house and have 'family' time.

Aerith was so nice and caring that if she asked me to do something around the house, like laundry and cleaning, I would never be able to refuse, despite how busy I may have been at the time. Cid was pretty blunt most of the time, but was still pretty awesome. At first he came across as kind of intimidating, but I figured out that he was really just a big softie inside.

On the Sunday after Riku's big get-together, we had all gone out to dinner since it was the first day all together. Cloud invited Leon, wanting his parents' approval and to meet him properly. However, Sora and I had to promise Cloud that there would be 'no funny business'. It was a pretty positive start, though.

"Okay, mum, dad, this is Leon." Cloud had nervously introduced him, focusing on how interesting the empty plate in front of him must have been.

"It's very nice to meet you, Leon! You can call me Aerith, dear." Aerith said in that kind, motherly way of hers, which I just had to admire.

"What's your last name, Leon?" Cid asked, eyeing the poor guy with narrowed eyes.

"Leonhart. First name's Squall, but everyone just calls me Leon."

"Oh! So you're Auron's son, yeah?" Cid smirked, and Leon nodded with a polite smile. "Man, the things we used to get up to..."

"Wait, you know his dad?" Cloud asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yep, used to do pretty much everything together! Although I probably shouldn't tell you... How old are you, Leon?"

"Nineteen, sir."

"Just call me Cid." Sora and I gave each other a knowing look – it was a sure sign that Cid approved. "A year older than Cloud, hey? But still too young to know. Man, those days..."

Cid had a look on his face that told us he was reflecting on his crazy earlier days, when a waiter came and took our orders.

"so, why don't you two talk anymore?" Sora tried to prompt him to continue the conversation that had died.

"Oh, you know, just sort of fell apart, I guess. And then I met your mother, here..." Cid grabbed Aerith's hand and smiled at her.

"NOOOOO!" Sora covered both our eyes. "Don't go any further! My childhood innocence~..."

We all laughed, but then Cid started speaking again. "So, boys. You haven't had sex, have you?"

Aerith giggled as Cloud started choking on his drink while blushing profusely. Leon's cheeks were slightly tinted red, but he figured he better answer for his boyfriend. "Uh, no, sir... Cid..."

"Good. Don't rush into it, 'kay?"

"Cid, darling, I think that's enough. Cloud's ears are starting to go red." Aerith intervened with a smile, and Sora and I chuckled.

"Oh, yeah, that's all, don't worry. Cloud, I like him. Just as long as he doesn't turn out to be some crazy, abusive druggy, that is..."

At that moment, a waiter came around with our food, and the conversation was changed to one less embarrassing.

The next few days were mainly a mix of Struggling and socialising for me. I had been slacking off schoolwork a bit, but Olette let me copy hers and explained it all to me at school when we had time. I was training every day with Seifer and Hayner until Wednesday morning, when we tried out for the Struggle team.

At our lunch break, Axel dragged me off to the library to show me the scene between Zexion and Demyx. Apparently the blonde had no idea we were here, but Axel thought it was about time we were introduced. We were hiding from behind the corner of a wall, and I was a bit too aware of how Axel was leaning over me, how his stomach was touching my back. But I tried to shrug it off and concentrate on the scene in front of us.

"Hi there, Zexy, uh. I was wondering..." Demyx started awkwardly, "Do you like... movies?"

"Yes, why do you ask?" We couldn't see Zexion's face since his back was facing us, but he seemed nice enough.

"Well, I was wondering... if you'd like to see a movie."

"See a movie?"

"With me."

"When?"

"Tonight?"

"As a... date?"

"Y-yeah..." Demyx stuttered but looked up hopefully.

"Sure. I'd love to." I heard Axel whisper a quick 'yes!' to himself.

"Oh my god I'm so happy!" Demyx exclaimed loudly and sort of threw himself at the other man for a hug. I turned to face Axel but wasn't expecting him to be so close and accidentally took a step backwards. He instinctively tried to catch me, but we both ended up falling out from our hiding spot and onto the ground. "Axel? Roxas? What are you doing here?"

"Just uh, you know. Thought that, um. We might—" Axel's explanation was going nowhere, so I interrupted.

"Axel wants to meet Zexion. And so do I, for that matter."

"Oh! Well..." He let go of the other and his face lit up as if something occurred to him. "You were listening, weren't you!"

"Of course n—"

"Yes." I interrupted Axel yet again.

"Oh! Oh well. Zexion, this is two of my best friends, Axel and Roxas!" He exclaimed in his normal happy mode.

"Nice to finally meet you!" Axel gave him a wide smile that looked somewhat mischievous, and I smiled, secretly flattered to count as one of his best friends.

"You too." Zexion smiled shyly.

After talking for a while, the bell rang and Axel and I walked to our next class while discussing our new friend.

"He's pretty short, you know." Axel mused to himself. "At least it'd make it easier to figure out their uh... places... in the relationship..."

"What?" Places?

"You know... roles..."

"No...?"

"Who's on top, Rox!" Axel started blushing slightly, and it occurred to me that he was talking about the two of them having sex. But then something else occurred to me.

"Oh. Wait, he's taller than me!" Guh.

"Not by much. Short isn't a bad thing, you know. You can consider yourself... fun sized?"

"Fun... sized." Did he realise how weird that sounded? Maybe it was just my hormone-filled teenage boy mind that was making me think of weird things, but it sounded like he was talking about me like I was a sex toy or something.

"I mean, like those chocolate bars! Fun sized... small... you know?" He blushed. "Oh, man..."

Ohhhhh. Yeah, that made a _bit_ more sense.

"Yeah... um. Changing the subject... I hear you made the Struggle team?" Axel said awkwardly. We talked that for while, and he asked me if I was nervous. I kind of was, but I had gotten a lot of help, so hopefully it was enough to do well in it.

After school, I went to the Sandlot and met up with Hayner, who was panicking about the deadline in which he had to confess his feelings with Seifer.

"Ugh, what am I going to do?" Hayner exclaimed and held his head in his hands.

"Don't worry! Just... get closer to him until them or something?"

"I can't get close to him, he hates me!" He looked at me with pleading eyes.

"That's not what it looks like when you two are bickering with each other instead of teaching me." Okay, so the way I said it made it seem like I was implying more than I actually was, but that didn't matter. I was sure that they would end up together. "Plus, you know what Olette thinks..."

"Well, that _is_ a good point, but what if he—"

"UH. Hayner! " I stopped him, because Seifer was approaching us he gave me a confused look, but I continued anyway. "I'll have that done by tomorrow. Yeah? Uh. Hi there, Seifer."

Mortified, Hayner spun around to face his blonde rival and let out an almost-squeal of "Hi!"

"Uh, hi there." Seifer furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and said, "You weren't talking about me, were you?"

"Uhm." Hayner blushed, and I figured that it wasn't the first time that day I'd have to intervene to save the situation.

"Yeah, but don't worry, it was just about the Struggle tournament finals and all that. Nothing major."

"Ohh, okay then. By the way, congrats on making the team."

"I _knew_ I could do it!" Hayner was back to his usual, determined self.

"Hey, I helped too!"

And the two were bickering, yet again. I watched in silence as they argued, not saying a word until they seemed to realise how close they were to each other, and Hayner tried divert the conversation towards how it was getting late and we should get a bit of practice in.

We only ended up Struggling for about twenty minutes though, and instead went to get sea-salt ice cream to celebrate getting onto the team.

When I got home, I said hi to everyone, then immediately went to check my email, finding one un-read message.

"_Hey, Rox, that's great news! So, this Axel guy, what's he like? I've got to meet him, you know, see if he gets my stamp of approval! Well, not stamp, but you know what I mean. How'd the Struggle team try outs go? You did awesomely right?_

—_Tidus"_

Roxas smiled while reading it and thought of something.

"_Hey Tidus. He's pretty cool, I think I really like him. But he called me fun sized today without realising how weird it sounds. But anyway. How about tomorrow? I'll see if I can get him to come over tomorrow. And I got in, yay!_

_Roxas." _

He waited in his room for a few minutes before he heard the message sound, and checked the new email immediately.

"_Yeah, that'd be awesome! And nice work, I knew you could do it! I'll see you tomorrow after school, yeah?" _

Roxas typed a quick reply: _"Okey dokey, see you tomorrow!" _before going back to the living room to have dinner with the rest of the family.

* * *

Yep, so, Auron is Leon's dad. I wasn't planning on doing that but it just sort of happened. And my sister and I always complain when my parents like, complement each other and stuff, haha. And I'm on holidays! Yay! Well, I've got a week and a half left, but yay! Anyway.

I really appreciate feedback and stuff, but thanks a lot for reading! :D


	10. Chapter 10

**[Roxas' POV] **

The Thursday after being accepted into the Struggle team, I managed to convince Demyx and Axel to come to my house so that I could introduce them to Tidus. Demyx was happier than usual, which probably had something to do with his date with Zexion, and Axel seemed to be pretty keen about it.

I also told Sora what would be happening, but he was going to be at Riku's house once again. He was really making it hard for me to believe him when saying that there was nothing going on between the two – especially when he blushed slightly after saying it.

"Hey Rox," Cloud said as he opened the door, "Demyx, Axel. Tidus is already here. Where's Sora?"

"At Riku's." I answered as we walked in "So, you've met Tidus, then?"

"Yeah, he seems pretty cool. By the way, mum and dad have gone shopping. I'm gonna meet up with Leon now though, see you later."

"Bye." I had this weird mental image of Cid trying on dresses for a moment, but tried to wipe it from my memory completely. This didn't work, so I walked in to the living room, followed by Axel and Demyx, and said with a smile, "Hey, Tidus!"

"Hey, Rox! How's it going?"

"Pretty good, and yourself?"

"Same."

"That's good. And um, this is Axel and Demyx." I motioned to them both.

"It's nice to finally meet you both, I've heard a lot about you," Tidus stood up and gave them both a handshake

"You too." Axel smiled.

"Hey!" Demyx said in his usual happy manner, "I've seen you struggling with Rox, Hayner and Seifer a week or two ago. It's nice to meet you!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yep!"

The conversation consisted of just small talk at first, but then Demyx was asked about his date with Zexion, and he was all too happy to tell us all about it.

"It was so good! Except we got there really early and were the only ones in the movie theatre for like, ten minutes, I think, and I ended up spilling skittles on him! So I tried to pick them up and then realised it was on his crotch—"

"Smooth, Dem." Axel interrupted, and the rest of us chuckled.

"It was an accident! Anyway, I sort of panicked, and we were both blushing, but he said it's okay. And you know what he did? He leant on my shoulder! It was so cute. He just sort of nuzzled on it while the movie was going." Demyx was happily rambling, and we all smirked at him.

Conversation continued, and soon we were playing racing car games. While Axel and Demyx were playing against each other, I stood up and went to the kitchen to get a drink, followed by Tidus.

"So, Axel seems pretty nice." Tidus started with small talk.

"Yeah. He's pretty funny, you know." I could say more, but I giggled unexpectedly.

"Yeah," he laughed, "and Demyx is pretty crazy, too. But that Zexion dude seems pretty nice."

"He _is_ pretty nice. I only met him the other day. How's school going for you and Yuna?"

"Pretty much the same. But there's this chick that keeps like... hitting on me? I don't know. Her name's Selphie. Yuna doesn't like her. She seems to get edgy around her or something." He sighed, "but she keeps like, hugging me and stuff. It's weird. I don't even know her."

"Aww, you have your own stalker!" I teased, and he lightly punched me on the arm. "Or maybe she's part of your fan club now that you're on the Struggle team?"

"Oh yeah, I've got all the ladies following me, you know," Tidus joked with raised eyebrows, "You can't blame them for obsessing over a body like _this_, though."

"You wish." We laughed.

"Oh, wait, I just need a..." He muttered to himself and before I realised, he reached over me to open a cupboard. We had been friends for a while, so the closeness didn't really matter to us.

**[Axel's POV]**

Roxas and Tidus left the room to get drinks, leaving Demyx and me to chat in living room.

"So, got any plans to ask Roxas out?" He said.

"Not yet, I don't know." I replied. "But I'm committing so well, and he doesn't even notice!"

"Well, duh, he's only been here for like, almost three weeks now." He laughed.

"I know, but still! I mean, what if he doesn't even like me?" I whined, now looking through the doorway into the kitchen the short blonde boy in question. Demyx followed my gaze as the other blonde came into view, and they talked for a while.

They looked like they were joking about something, but then Tidus leaned over the other, and, hey—

"Oh, mygod... Is that... No. It can't be." I heard Demyx mutter, and I couldn't believe it myself.

I could have sworn that Tidus was kissing him. At the time, I didn't consider any evidence showing that this wasn't the case, but all I took in was their closeness, and how I couldn't see Roxas's head while the other's was leaning downwards slightly.

"That little bitch just kissed Roxas..." I said in disbelief.

"I'm sure it wasn't like that, I mean, why would he?" He tried to reason.

"That _whore_."

"Axel, he has a girlfriend, I mean, you can't even see them all."

"Exactly! He's a two timing whore!" I was outraged.

"Axel. Calm down," He forced me to face him, and I couldn't remember a time when I had ever seen him this serious, "You really shouldn't come to conclusions so easily."

I stared at him for a moment before deciding, "I'm leaving. I'll see you tomorrow."

Ignoring his protests, I strode over to the door, gave him a nod while opening it and left, not really considering if there would be any consequences. I felt somewhat bad for leaving Demyx on his own like that, but was too annoyed to really do anything about it.

**[Roxas' POV]**

Before entering the main room again, Tidus checked the time and realised he had to be somewhere soon. I walked with him to the door and said bye, then went back to Demyx and Axel to find that something was wrong.

"Where's Axel?"

"He, uh, had to do something." Demyx replied nervously.

"Oh. I see. Well, then." I was pretty disappointed that he left without saying bye or anything, but I talked to Demyx for a while instead, until he got a call from his mum and had to leave.

The next day at school, I knew that something wasn't right.

When trying to walk to Axel to greet him, he sneered at me, turned and walked off, avoiding me for the rest of the day. It didn't help that the weekend was the next day, or that I was nervous about the Struggle tournament that would be on Wednesday.

Sora explained to me about how he had tried to ask Axel about what was wrong, before being ignored himself. Demyx also wouldn't tell me, saying that I should ask him myself.

On the Tuesday afternoon before the tournament, Hayner was still nervous about confessing, but figured that Olette wouldn't do anything too bad. I was pretty confident about it, until I arrived home, surprised to find an anonymous letter in the mail for me, which said:

"_Don't think you can just steal my boyfriend and then get away with it. You've got something coming for you._

—_Larxy."_

Larxy? What sort of stupid nickname was Larxy? It made her sound like a sadistic type of butterfly or something. And if the bitch thought she was intimidating me or something like that, she was wrong. Reading the note made me feel pissed, and in an angry rage, I stormed through the house, found what I was looking for, and did something I told myself I wouldn't do ever again.

* * *

Dun dun dun~ ...I also got a mental image of Cid trying on dresses. They were blue with cherries on them. :3

I was hoping this would be a little longer, but nooo. Anyway, this is going to be the third last chapter, I'm pretty sure. I also didn't mean for there to be a cliffhanger, but it just... happened. Anyway, I'd love to know what you thought of it, thanks a lot for reading! :D


	11. Chapter 11

**[Roxas' POV]**

The sun was setting as I stumbled my way through the familiar streets of Hollow Bastion, overbalancing a lot and getting weird looks. I had snuck into Cid's alcohol cabinet and taken just whatever I could find, drinking for a few minutes before deciding to go find Axel.

My vision was slightly clouded, but I still recognised where I was, and ended up at one of those playgrounds often frequented by kids. I had seen him walk past here a few times – I mean, pfft, it wasn't as if I was stalking him or something – and hoped he would come now.

It wasn't long before I heard him approaching, talking to who I recognised as Demyx.

"Axel, I can't believe you're still ignoring him." Demyx sighed, uncharacteristically frustrated.

"Why?" Oh my god, it was him. I froze on the swing, trying to hear what he was saying. "_He's_ the one that kissed that Tidus guy! I mean, I should have seen it coming.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Woops, did I say that out loud? Whatever. Before I knew it, I got off the swing – or more like fell and stumbled off like those drunk people I always laugh at in public – and was making my way towards him angrily.

"Wh—Roxas?" Axel said, off guard, before his eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm going to, uh, leave..." Demyx said, before walking off and shouting back with a smile, "If you don't start talking by tomorrow I'll hunt you down in your sleep!"

If I was thinking straight at the time, I would have probably said bye to him, but I went straight for Axel, almost tripping into him in the process. "What the hell are you talking about? I wouldn't kiss Tidus, you jerk! I mean, he's not even gay! He has a girlfriend! Why would you think something like that?"

"You didn't... kiss him?" He said, his captivating green eyes widening incredulously.

"No! Ugh. Why would—"

"Oh. It... It must've just been the angle I was watching at." He paused, then asked disapprovingly, "Rox, are you drunk?"

"Noo... I only had like, a bottle of something..." He looked at me suspiciously, "maybe more..."

"And, um... where's your shirt?" His red eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"I, um... I don't know." I giggled. It was a good question, though – I never saw that shirt again, you know.

"You _know_ that the Struggle tournament's tomorrow, right? And you're kind of going to have to compete, yeah?"

"Ohhhh, that!"

"How do you suppose you'll play with a headache, Rox?"

"I'll... use my super powers!"

"Pfft. Come on, Rox," He sighed and took my hand in his, "We're going home."

"Noooo! You already stole my shirt... now you're taking me to your secret lair?" He picked me up over his shoulder and I feebly struggled – I was a complete klutz when I was drunk, so he just laughed at me.

"Oh, jeez..."

"Rapiiiiist!" I shouted with a slight giggle, and he put me down at the bench at the bus stop, still holding my hand to make sure I didn't run away or something. I was tempted to pretend to run away just so that he'd hold me more, but was too disturbed upon hearing a conversation between two old people.

"Ah, young love..." The woman said with a smile, and her husband hummed in agreement. "Remember when we were that age... and you used to do that thing with your tongue?"

Axel started to choke on nothing in particular, and she turned to us. "How long have you two been dating? Have you popped the question yet?"

Axel and I shared a look, and he decided to answer. "Uh, no ma'am, we're not, uh... we're not _together_, you know... and we're in high school, still..."

"Oh, my. You're still at the denial stage? Don't worry, it doesn't last long." She smiled warmly at us. Was I getting... dating advice from a grandma? Oh man. I'd have to tell Sora and Tidus about this some time.

"Oh, thank you, ma'am." Axel answered, and I giggled. It was funny to see him be all polite to her, since I hadn't seen him act like this before.

"And if he doesn't, you know, submit straight away, the good ol' tongue manoeuvre should do the trick!" She laughed, then whispered not-so-subtly with a wink, "It certainly worked on me."

If she had said it to anyone else, she would have been the coolest grandmother ever. But our expressions could only be summed up by _"Oh my freakin' god"_. This woman was crazy.

**[Axel's POV]**

Oh man, was I happy. Well, I was a bit bummed that I wasted pretty much a week not talking to him for some reason that didn't ever actually happen, but I was really happy about the fact that he didn't kiss Tidus. So happy, that I didn't strangle him when he was trying to run away. I didn't think I liked a drunk Roxy. I mean, I don't know why he was in the first place, and he didn't strike me as the druggie type. But, oh well, hopefully it'd just be a one off.

"Axel, I want my shirt baaaack," he whined, overbalancing while trying to walk.

"Rox. I don't have your shirt, you... lost it somehow before I found you." I rolled my eyes with a laugh.

"But I want it..." I sighed, took mine off and gave it to him. He grinned and put it on. It was a bit big for him, but it looked kind of adorable like that... Well, adorable in a manly way, of course. "Ha ha, now you don't have a shiiirt!"

Oh man...

"Oh, a snail!" What? Oh... he looked like he was dangerously close to face-planting the pavement, and I decided to try and drag him away gently by the shoulders so that he didn't do some damage to his face. I got an odd mental image of him falling, then bouncing back by his hair, but... somehow I didn't think that would actually work.

"Roxas, don't harm the poor snail..."

"But Ax, it's so... slimy!" He looked at it in awe.

"Roxas, um, just... just come here, 'kay? There are muffins. I'll give you a muffin when we get there! Do you like muffins?"

"Yeah! Okay!" Phew.

I ended up getting to his house about two minutes later, and Cloud was the only one home. I had to explain everything to him, and he nodded, telling me I was a good friend for taking him here, and accepted when I asked if I could stay the night. Well, on one term...

"Just as long as there's no... funny business, yeah?"

"Oh, uh, sure thing!" I felt my face flushing, and he laughed.

"It's okay. I'll help you get him up stairs." He said, and together we picked Roxas – he had fallen asleep or something on the floor – to his bed.

**...**

I ended up sleeping the night in Roxas bed with him, which sounds suspicious, I know, but I didn't do anything weird. I mean, maybe spooning him, but that wasn't too weird, right?

We woke up with a start when someone knocked on his door, opened it, and saw us both in the bed. After a moment I realised that it was Sora's dad, Cid, before he said, "You, perve! Outta his bed! He's got a Struggle competition to win, the sex can come later!"

Sora's head poked out and he said, "What... I KNEW IT. Guess who's just won twenty dollars from Riku!"

"What's going on...? Oh crap, Struggle. Oh god." Roxas said as he woke up, and put his hand on his forehead. "Why does my head hurt? ...Oh shit, I'm an idiot..."

"Roxas!" Cloud came walking into the room, then stopped when he saw me there, "You both better have pants on..."

"Don't worry, I didn't do anything to him..." I said, nervously. "He's still a young and innocent teenage boy..."

"Good." Cloud smiled, and took a bottle of sports drink out of his pocket. "Roxas, you've gotta drink this. It'll help with the headache, you're dehydrated."

"Ugh..." Roxas got out of bed and stood up, taking the bottle.

Once he had drunk the entire thing, along with a painkillers tablet, he had a bit of breakfast and we left. Sora was pretty excited, cheering on Roxas before we even left the house.

**[Roxas' POV]**

The tournament was at the Sandlot in Twilight Town, and as soon as I got there, I heard someone calling my name. I turned to see Tidus making a beeline for me, holding some brunette girl's hand.

"Hey, Rox, you ready?" He smiled.

"Yep! Well, I had a headache earlier this morning, but it's better now." I answered with a sheepish smile, and he turned to the girl.

"That's good! I mean, not about the headache, but... you know. Anyway, I'd like you to meet Yuna!"

"Hi, Roxas." She smiled sweetly. "I've heard a lot about you."

"You too," I smiled back, "It's nice to finally meet you."

After a few minutes of small talk, Tidus noticed Axel in the distance talking to Riku, and asked me what was going on with us both. I told him everything that happened – including our strange conversation with the old lady – and he shook his head with a smile.

However, just as I finished explaining, this other girl came along with overly-short shorts and crazy blonde hair. She pretty much threw herself at him while trying to hug him, and he tried to move away from her the best he could. I figured this was the Rikku I had heard about.

"Hey, Tidus! I'm so happy you're here." She giggled, pretty much up in his face.

"Rikku, seriously, get off me!" Tidus tried to push her off as gently as he could, but then Yuna calmly stepped in.

"Come on, Tidus, let's go. I need to see someone." She leaned up and kissed him quickly, and Rikku glared daggers at her, letting go.

I heard the blonde girl mutter something like, "ho, stealing my man," as Tidus nodded with a slight smile at me, and I nodded back, turning off to find Hayner and Seifer. I didn't have to search for long, as I could hear them bickering from thirty metres away. I couldn't tell exactly what they were complaining about, but decided not to really bother trying.

"Hey guys," I greeted them.

"Roxas, you're here! How's it going!" Hayner gave me one of those manly handshakes and patted me on the back, and Seifer smirked and nodded at me.

"Pretty good. How 'bout you?"

"I'm good!"

"Oh, guys, we're gonna have to go now, see our line up." Seifer interrupted, seeing a board in the distance. We walked there and had a look, even though I had pretty much no idea who any of the names where on it.

However, the two looked at me with raised eyebrows, and I asked, "What?"

"You've got a really easy first match. You're against Xigbar." Seifer answered.

"...Who?"

"Xigbar. I mean, he's not a bad struggler, but he's not too... strong? I don't know. He can be _really_ fast, though. So watch out." Hayner explained.

It turns out, he wasn't as easy as they said – he _was_ really fast – but I managed to hit him unexpectedly a few times, and I soon won. There were five rounds overall, and I won all of them, except for the last one, as the person I was against, Xaldin, didn't turn up for twenty minutes so I won by default.

When I decided to tell Hayner and Seifer about this, they didn't seem too surprised, and I said, "You know something about it, don't you."

"No...?" Hayner tried to look innocent, but failed.

Seifer sighed and explained, "Riku was around some time before it, and he texted Hayner to tell him to come over where he was. We came and heard him and two others talking about something to do with you, so we decided that we'd, you know..." He trailed off thoughtfully, looking for the right word.

"Help you out a bit." Hayner finished for him.

"Oh, well then... thanks." I smiled at them before pursing my lips in thought, "Did you see what they looked like?"

"Well, there was this blonde chick that looked like a bug," Seifer smirked, and I panicked slightly.

"And there was another guy called Luxord, who had short blonde hair," After Seifer gave him a questioning glance he explained, "I versed him before. And won."

"That's a surprise..." Seifer muttered jokingly. Hayner lightly punched his arm and Seifer threw his arm around his shoulders casually with a laugh, then left it there. After a moment we all realised, look at him, and let go before nervously saying, "He had a... fly, and I, uh... swatted it away..."

"Hey, could I get all your attention?" Some man said into a loudspeaker, signalling that it was time for the presentation.

**[...]**

The presentation was overly long – as they usually are – so I spent the whole time just watching the crowd for people I knew. First I saw Sora and Riku pulling faces at me, then Hayner and Seifer giving me thumbs up, and then I saw Axel and Demyx.

The blonde smiled and waved, and the redhead gave me that Cheshire smile of his. Those green eyes of his were also really noticeable from a distance, but I looked away before I could get any, ahem, weird thoughts...

Everyone stayed at the Sandlot afterwards, and after many strangers said "Nice work" to me with a smile, my friends made a beeline for me and tackled me, making a testosterone-filled pile of laughing and cheering teenage boys.

After a while, people cleared off, and I was left waiting with Axel, who seemed pretty nervous.

"So, congratulations." He started, pausing to swallow. "You've gotten really good, you know. Especially since you only started the other week. I'm... really impressed."

"Oh, thanks, Axel." I smiled. There was obviously something else he wanted to say.

"Um... I was wondering... after every Struggle tournament, you know Marly?"

"The one that you were dressing as a clown for, right?"

"Yeah, that's the one." He laughed. "He always has a big party, and I was wondering... uh..."

"Yeah...?"

"Would you like to come with me?" He smiled sheepishly. "Like, as a... date, you know?"

I felt giddy all of a sudden, and my stomach had a strange sensation in it – I guessed this was what a crush was like, really. His hand raked through his hair anxiously as he looked around, and I realised that I was probably building suspense accidentally by not answering.

After managing to calm my nerves down enough for me to trust my own voice, I replied with a goofy grin, "Of course I'd like that, Axel."

* * *

I finally wrote this later then I meant to, sorry 'bout that. But it's a lot longer too, haha. And it's the second last chapter, too. I'll try to have the next one up soon. :) Anyway, I'd really love to know what you thought of it! Thanks for reading! :D


	12. Chapter 12

**[Axel's POV]**

I was so excited about Marluxia's party – aside from the fact that they were usually pretty much the best parties, I would be going with Roxas, and as a date, meaning I'd get to hold his hand. And touch him.

...In totally appropriate places, I swear.

He had gone home with Sora and their family, but said that he'd be here at my place in the next hour or so. But it had been an hour by now, so I was starting to worry about why he wasn't here yet. I mean, Roxas was always early or on time, right? So why wasn't he here now?

To me, there was only one obvious answer: he had been kidnapped. By a paedophile by the name of Larxene. Or maybe by a pirate? I mean, that Xigbar guy he beat in the tournament had an eye patch, which automatically made him a pirate. Maybe he wanted revenge for being defeated. Or maybe it was a ninja who—

_Ding dong~_

...Oh. I rushed to the door as quickly as I could and opened it, beaming down at the seemingly nervous blonde in front of me. "Hey, Rox!"

"Hey, Axel." He looked up at my eyes shyly smiled.

I took a step forward and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, leading him towards the car before opening the passenger's door and letting him sit in. As I sat in the driver's seat and put the keys into the ignition, I said to break the awkward silence, "Rox, you know, I'm really glad you could come with me like this."

"I'm glad you invited me. It was awesome of you to." He almost stuttered, then said curiously, "Hey, what's this Marluxia dude like, anyway?"

I laughed, "Uh, flamboyant. That's... well, that's the only way to really describe him. He's got pink hair and he really loves roses. But if he gets angry, he can actually be really scary."

He laughed and said, "So... he _is_ gay, right? Not just like those metro guys on TV?"

"Well, I think he's actually bi, I don't know... You know he dated Larxene as well?"

"What?" He looked at me in surprise.

"Yep. Before me. It was in like, eighth grade." I recalled. "But it wasn't really serious or anything."

"Oh." I could see him smiling out of the corner of my eye.

The rest of the car trip was filled with small talk, until I pulled over and we got out of the car. While walking the final block I managed to subtly hold his hand, noticing the blush playing on his cheeks. It was so cute that I almost walked past Marly's house, when he noticed that there was an open door and we could hear a bit of music playing already.

As soon as I walked through the door a something ran into me with a blur of pink and it took me a moment to realise that that it was my pink-haired friend hugging me.

"Hey there, Axel," Marluxia said with a smirk, "how's it going?"

"Pretty good, how 'bout yourself?"

"Same," he smiled, then saw Roxas standing awkwardly behind me and exclaimed, "Oh, is this Roxy?"

I chuckled, "Yep, that's him."

"Well, you always did have a good taste in guys..." He winked at me, and I smiled reassuringly at the awkward blonde before putting an arm around his shoulders.

A minute or so later, Demyx and Zexion came through the door, and Marluxia exclaimed, "Oh, who's this gorgeous lilac-haired man?"

Catching up turned into general discussion after a while, and soon more guests had arrived. It had always been a bit of a tradition for his closest friends – including Demyx and me – to arrive before everyone else, but by 8:30 the house was starting to fill up with people, some of which I had never seen before.

**[Hayner's POV]**

I had forgotten all about Olette's threat to make me confess to Seifer until now, and when she arrived at the party with Pence all I could do was panic. I had been with my blonde rival at the time – we arrived together after getting sea-salt ice cream with a few others – and he noticed my odd change in demeanour, smirking and asking what was up.

I was about to say some strange excuse that probably wouldn't even be plausible – hey, it's not _my_ fault I'm a bad liar – but Olette chose that moment to come with Pence trailing behind her, holding her hand.

Wait, they were a couple now? Well, at it's clear who wears the pants in the relationship... and let's just say, it's not Pence.

Anyway, she stared at us suspiciously before saying to me with a sweet smile, "You haven't told him yet, have you?"

"Told me what?" Seifer asked, confused.

"Um... that, you know..." I trailed off nervously and looked around the room for a distraction, "Oh, look at that! Roxas's with Axel, I'm just gonna go and—"

Olette grabbed my arm roughly, stopping me from leaving and making me cringe as her nails dug into my skin. "You're not going anywhere, mister."

"What haven't you told me?" Seifer asked again.

After I didn't say anything for a moment, the brunette sighed and said in frustration, "Ugh, don't you get it? You two like each other, and I know it! So just... man up and tell each other yourselves!" She saw something in the distance and smiled at us sweetly before saying, "Oh, there's Kairi, I need to ask her something. Come on, Pence." And with that, she was off, leading the shorter man behind her.

We were both too stunned to say anything all that productive at first, so he said, "Uh... What was that about?"

"I, um, well, you know..." I trailed off, trying to think of what to say.

Seifer looked down at the floor before mumbling something that I couldn't hear over the music playing a few rooms over.

"Huh?"

"I said, she's right, you know."

"Oh, well... Wait, really?"

He smirked nervously and said, "Yeah, well..."

"I kind of like you too." I felt weird about being the first one to say it, but the smile he gave me pretty much reassured me. It was as if my confessing had given him a total boost in confidence.

"Well, I don't just _kind of_ like you." He leaned in close and whispered in my ear, "I _really_ like you."

"Oh?" I said with a raised eyebrow, as a warm, almost queasy feeling filled my stomach. "How do I know you're not just teasing?"

He gave me a mischievous grin before gently pushing me against the wall and kissing me, hard enough for me not to care who was around us.

If I had known that this would be how Olette's threat would end, I wouldn't have bothered trying to confess in the first place. But, hey, maybe her gaydar and scheming were good things, after all.

**[Roxas' POV]**

"Oh, look over there." Axel pointed over to Hayner and Seifer, who were... kissing? Oh, crap, that reminded me.

"Ah, I was supposed to help him confess to Seifer..." I trailed off with a smile, and Axel finished my thoughts for me.

"Well, I suppose he doesn't need any help anymore." We both laughed before he mused, "I can imagine them as a bit of an S-and-M relationship, you know... Master Seifer, and mistress Hay-Hay—"

"Wait, what's that mean?" I interrupted.

"Uhm..." He looked at me oddly, and I noticed a slight pink tinge on his cheeks. "You know, like, sadism... and masochism..."

"Ohhhhh." I understood. Well, I knew what sadism was, but, "Wait, what's masochism?"

"...It's, well, the opposite of sadism..." He had a bit of a light bulb moment and said, "Hey, so, if we were having sex, right, and..."

Oh god... "And?"

"And I spanked you, you'd be a bit of a masochist 'cause you'd like the pain, yeah?"

"...Right."

"Yep. Well, I'm gonna get a drink, want one?" He said. I nodded in return and he left, just before Riku and Sora came over and started talking to me about my relationship with Axel. It was all going well, until Riku's eyes widened – he was facing me, so he could see what was going on behind me – and I turned around to face a blonde.

With weird antenna-shaped bangs. And Axel was nowhere to be seen.

...Oh, shit.

"Knew you'd be here." She said in that annoying voice of hers – well, okay, if it was on anyone else it wouldn't be so annoying – and stared at me with that sadistic grin of hers. I could see Riku typing something quickly on his phone before standing up next to me, and Sora turned to face the blonde who continued after a pause. "So, where's your boyfriend now? You're still, you know, going out, yeah? Or did he see that you're not worth the trouble and dump you?"

I glared daggers at her and said after a pause, "He's getting drinks, actually, and if he _had_ dumped me, he'd still like me a hell of a lot more than he'd like you."

She snorted, "Yeah, that's what you think. You know what?"

"...What?"

"I think he doesn't even like you. He's just leading you on to make me jealous, so that I'd come back to him." I smirked, and she narrowed her eyes slightly at me.

"As if. You're jealous already. Why else would you be doing this?"

She clenched her fists and glowered, before two others appeared – one with short blonde hair, and another with long black dreadlocks and too much facial hair. She smiled at them and said, "Ah, Luxord, Xaldin, this is the one that stole him."

"Hey, shit, they're the ones that we tied up today at the Struggle tournament." I turned to see Seifer and Hayner walking towards the scene, standing next to Riku and me. I recognised Larxene's friends from Struggle, and figured that the black-haired one must be the dude I was meant to verse in the finals earlier today.

"How the hell did you guys get out?" Hayner asked, incredulously.

"You fuckers..." She glared at the two newcomers, but the blonde man next to her told her to calm down, to her dismay, and she called out, "Lex?"

The only way I could describe the man approaching us would be 'tank'. He was huge – all muscle – and I couldn't imagine anyone beating him in a fight, unless it was someone incredibly fast.

"Hey, Seif..." I heard Hayner whisper, "Which is the odd one out of those four?"

"Which one?" Seifer replied.

"None – they're all men." The two chuckled, and Larxene screamed at them.

"UGH." Her fingers were bent as if she was about to claw someone, and she took a slow step towards me, stopping centimetres away from my face. "You're going to lay off Axel right now, you little fucker, or else—"

There was a sudden bang, a mix of musical notes and smashing, and I was pushed back a couple of steps, Axel standing in front of me. I peered around him in astonishment to see the tank guy – 'Lex', as Larxene had called him – lying on the floor in front of Demyx who, clutching a completely smashed acoustic guitar with a crestfallen expression, said, "Aw man, now I can't play that song I wrote for you, Zex."

Before I could think about what was going on, Axel was crouched over angrily with his hands bent into fists – I noticed one was wrapped around a crushed plastic cup, the contents dripping from his hand – saying, "You better have a _fucking good_ explanation for this."

"Oh, hey there, Axel, I'm glad you could come join the show." She said, her smile somehow sweet and intimidating at the same time.

"Don't fucking bullshit me. What are you doing?" I had slowly moved to his side so that I could watch his face, and, holy crap – he was scary when he was pissed.

However, she wasn't backing down, "Just thought I'd, you know, show him why you're really dating him." She took a step closer and tried to lean up to kiss him, but he took a step back and turned his face towards me with an apologetic glance, and put a protective arm around my shoulders.

"Look, if you and your man-slaves don't back the fuck off right now," He said in a low, threatening voice, "I'm going to _make sure_ you get it through your head that I never want to see you again."

She narrowed her eyes but didn't back off, and said, "Oh, really? And what're you going to do? You're really going to stand up for that shrimp?" ...Hey!

"At least he's not a sadistic bitch like you," Axel smirked, and Larxene's eyes grew wide. "And, yeah, I am, because he's my boyfriend, and he's a hell of a lot better than you'll ever be."

I stared up at him in awe; I wasn't used to being complimented like this, and I had a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach. But the blonde just had to cut in.

"What, _him_? As if." She laughed shrilly, and it looked as if Axel was about to launch himself at her if it wasn't for the interruption.

"LARXENE?" A male voice screamed, and we all looked to see Marluxia, with the bowl of punch in his hands, standing next to a man with long, blonde hair. "What are you doing here? You four get the hell out of my house!"

"Make me." She said, cocking her head to the side.

"Oh, I'll make you, alright." He trudged angrily to her and held the bowl over her head, and she looked up at him, blue eyes wide with fear.

"You wouldn't..."

"Oh, yes I would." He smirked at her.

She screamed in frustration before saying, "Fine!" and storming off. Her three friends looked at each other before following her, and the room was silent for a few minutes. I ignored cheers from other people I didn't know, as Axel took a deep breath and turned to me.

"Wanna go outside?"

"Sure." I agreed, relieved. As soon as we were out of the house, I felt the cool breeze and looked up to Axel, who was now standing in front of me, hands gripping my forearms.

"Are you okay?" His voice was full of concern, and I smiled.

"Of course I am." He seemed to relax, and brought his hands down to mine, bringing them together.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there sooner." He bit his lip sheepishly. "I was talking to Dem and Marly about, well... my intentions with you." This made me feel a bit self-conscious, but I ignored it. "Which, don't worry, are all innocent."

He winked and I laughed, saying, "It's okay, I'm just glad that you're here now."

He smiled down at me before his expression changed to one of concern, and he said, "And I'm glad you're okay. I just... I don't know what's with her! If she ever talks to you again, don't believe a word she says."

"It's okay, really." I smiled, and he leaned in close.

"Because, well, I really care about you, Rox." It was almost a whisper. "I think I..."

"You think you..." I tried to prompt him to continue, but he looked at the ground and bit his lip before his eyes returned to mine.

"I think I love you." He gave a meek smile. "No, I _do_ love you. A lot."

I felt quite giddy all of a sudden and had a wide grin on my mouth as I said, "Well, I love you too, Axel."

His smile widened slowly as he closed the distance between us, hesitantly pressing his lips over mine and kissing me softly but sweetly. Our pace quickened, and soon we were gasping for breath but still kissing each other, when someone walked by and started humming a wedding theme. We pulled immediately to find Marluxia smirking at us.

"Erm, I just came to tell you that, since I trust you and everything, you can use my bedroom. Just as long as there's no sex or anything." He said, "I have to sleep on it, you know..."

"Oh, thanks" Axel laughed, and I noticed his cheeks were flushed. "Uh, don't worry, we won't do any of... that." Marluxia gave him a coy grin before leaving, and Axel looked at me for a moment before moving to my side and picking me up... bridal style.

"Drop me and you're dead." I said in low voice, and he laughed, before I mused, "I feel like a bit of a princess with you carrying me like this... except that I'm a dude."

"Don't worry, Roxy, I think you'd make a good princess..." He trailed off, and I knew something more was coming. "...If princesses have sex hair, that is."

I giggled as he carried me through the doorway and laid me down gently on the bed, scanning me up and down. He slowly crawled on top of me and kissed me – I was slightly nervous, since I had never done this with anyone before. But in a way I was glad that Larxene was such an obsessed stalkerish sort of person, since, well... would I really be this close to Axel if she hadn't done so?

Ah well. The main thing was that I loved Axel, he loved me, and I couldn't be happier any other way.

_**The End.**_

* * *

DRAMA~ (dun dun duuunnnn) ...And ultra-sap. Axel really does seem to have a habit of coming to conclusions too quickly in this. xD Also, I had to explain what a masochist was to my friend... But uh, I didn't use that same explanation.

This is the **last chapter of this story**, unfortunately. I've got other plans for other fanfics though, so hopefully I'll be able to get onto those soon. But, what'd you think of it? The ending paragraph(s) took me ages 'cause I kept writing stuff and hating it and redoing it. Was it too confusing? Idk.

But yeah, thanks so much for reading this story! I had fun writing it, and I really appreciated every single one of your comments, they made me smile. :3 And, of course, encouraged me to write more. But yeah. Hope you liked it, thanks for reading! :D


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